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Bald Eagles... in your FACE

So, I live in southeastern Alaska, and we have a lot of bald eagles. We have more bald eagles than sparrows, or so it would seem. Of course, it's easier to see eagles than it is to see sparrows because eagles are huge and sparrows are just tiny, but I digress.

We have a lot of them.

They are everywhere.

They are very large.

They are considered sacred by the Tlingit, and are a symbol of freedom to many. However, they are also a pain in the rear when they are having a party on the side of the road, looking at fish in the ditch. Fish party! You, well-intentioned human that you are, pull your entire vehicle into the oncoming lane, hoping they won't freak out and just stay put. They freak out anyway, and take flight. It's kind of hard to magically lift ten pounds into thin air, even if you have the power of flight, so what you end up with are these birds with a 72+ inch wing span who can't gain much altitude and aren't smart enough to fly past you in the lane you just vacated and are instead flying right at the grill of your truck (bad) or right at your windshield (worse!). And there you are, zigzagging your truck amongst multiple ten-to-fifteen pound animals flying toward you that could break your windshield and quite possibly result in your serious injury or death.

But yeah, sure. They're beautiful.

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Comments

( 16 comments — Leave a comment )
affreca
Nov. 6th, 2010 02:51 am (UTC)
Much sympathy. My neighbor had his windshield taken out by a wild turkey earlier this year. It was an impressive dent in the glass.
flourish
Nov. 6th, 2010 03:55 am (UTC)
Turkeys are the worst. There are a bunch in my folks' neighborhood that will just sit in the middle of the road and look at you as you try to drive around them. Just looking. Baleful. Resentful. Malicious. Sure that they are higher life forms.
isquiesque
Nov. 7th, 2010 02:22 am (UTC)
Yeah. I moved to southeastern Alaska from the southeastern United States. Lots of turkeys on the mountain where I lived, but fortunately I only seemed to scatter them to flight (they seem to *hate* flying) when I was hiking. So, enough to give one a heart-attack, but not something dangerous like having them hit your windshield, cause you to not see, and put you in the ditch or around a tree or (in the case of where I lived in Appalachia) over the side of the mountain.
isquiesque
Nov. 7th, 2010 02:18 am (UTC)
Yikes. I hope he was okay.
azurelunatic
Nov. 6th, 2010 07:06 am (UTC)
I'm vaguely reminded of the ~seven-pound crazy hens my family used to have. Lovely, black and white, with these gorgeous long white necks. And you'd bring one into the house (as one does) and she'd be sitting on the floor very very quietly, and then someone would make the wrong move, and she would explode, screaming and squawking, flying straight for what appeared to be the nearest escape route, the dining room picture window.
(Deleted comment)
gows
Nov. 6th, 2010 07:55 pm (UTC)
*giggles furiously*
isquiesque
Nov. 7th, 2010 02:22 am (UTC)
Man, my cats are bad enough. Easily spooked. If they could fly... yeah, I don't even want to think about that.
azurelunatic
Nov. 7th, 2010 02:37 am (UTC)
They wouldn't attempt to fly through the window, happily. They'd just sort of skid to a halt on the windowsill and continue flapping and screaming.
(Deleted comment)
isquiesque
Nov. 7th, 2010 02:18 am (UTC)
How eagles exist within their ecological niche doesn't sway me one way or the other. Taking lives needlessly bothers me, but more to the point them hitting my windshield, cracking it, scaring the shit out of me and making me potentially put my car in the ditch because I can't see... that does make me swerve for them.
maga_dogg
Nov. 7th, 2010 03:43 pm (UTC)
I'm willing to forgive eagles their disgusting habits, if only because it's all that's keeping us from breathing in rotting salmon for three-quarters of the year. (And 'vultures in tuxedos' wouldn't be a bad description for humans, either; it's probable that for a good chunk of our ancestry we spent much of our time following vultures.)
gows
Nov. 6th, 2010 07:55 pm (UTC)
*snicker* Pigeons of the Panhandle, as I like to call 'em. :D
isquiesque
Nov. 7th, 2010 02:24 am (UTC)
Heh - I have, surprisingly enough, never heard that phrase. But it's kinda awesome.
gows
Nov. 7th, 2010 02:56 pm (UTC)
*chuckle* It's funny, listening to people from the lower 48 talk about bald eagles in an "OMG!" sort of way, when they're everywhere in the Southeast.
lhimarie
Nov. 9th, 2010 02:00 am (UTC)
>Of course, it's easier to see eagles than it is to see sparrows because eagles are huge and sparrows are just tiny, but I digress.

I LOVE this. :D
isquiesque
Nov. 9th, 2010 02:52 am (UTC)
Heehee. Thank you. And welcome to the journal. Glad you're here.
lhimarie
Nov. 9th, 2010 03:11 am (UTC)
I've actually been here since my freshman year of high school which was...2003/4. I just started a new account because I don't really like who I was. New outlook on life and all that. :D
( 16 comments — Leave a comment )

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Jacqueline A. Lott Ashwell
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