Some folks go their whole lives without really being aware of what is around them. Not too long ago, I had a nephew tell me that the largest bird in this area is the Osprey. "Have you ever seen one of those?" he queried. Yep, well, I sort of live in the midst of them. "They are huge! They are the biggest birds around here!" he remarked. He was so excited about his find that I almost did not have the heart to tell him that we have Bald Eagles which are much, much larger than the Osprey. As fate one have it, right at that moment, an eagle flew over the Little Bayou House. Enough said...he is now in awe that he has seen a "real, live eagle"! This young man has lived here all of his life and is just now noticing eagles? Wow! But...it does not surprise me as his sister was so happy when she found that I had blue "pigeons" in my yard a few years back. Surprisingly enough, she was referring to the blue buntings that were migrating through the area. Those tiny birds are long stretch from a pigeon. The sweet girl had never been told that there were other birds besides the pigeons she had seen on the streets in town. What a shame. I guess parents are not teaching their kids about nature. I did. Our kids loved being able to roam about the Bayou and woods and paddle the waters of Back Bay. By being outside, they learned to love nature.
This afternoon, Mark and I sat on the pier just enjoying the view. A few pelicans were diving for mullet when suddenly Mark made the comment that the eagle had just caught a fish. Sure enough, a bald eagle had a quite large fish in its talons and was heading back to the nest site. Seeing the eagles dive for fish is a sight like none other. They are powerful birds that can haul a huge fish out of the water, take flight and carry that fish for quite a distance without ever struggling. With their excellent vision and accurate aim, the eagles rarely miss their mark. With the Bay so full of fish at the moment, nary a predator should go hungry and that eagle had enough food to feed itself and perhaps its young. Mark and I are truly blessed to have a front row seat to observe nature at its finest.
Never count on Hollywood to give truthful accounts of anything! No, this is not a political rant, I do not do those. This is a critter rant, for whatever it is worth. Probably not much. For the longest time, I thought eagles made the high-pitched scream that we all heard on the old western movies. Let a cowboy be lost in the desert with an eagle off in the distance and you would always hear a distinctive screech. Yep...that was an eagle! Nope...that might have been an eagle filmed but that was not an eagle screaming. As a kid, I never thought much about it. To me, an eagle could very well be screaming its head off at that cowboy....I was more interested in the horse! I was all about horses and never followed a plot of any movie but, instead, focused solely on the horse! I fretted over the horse stumbling about with no water but never worried that the cowboy was being circled by vultures or screamed at by eagles.
Now as an adult living on the Bayou and watching every critter that calls the place home, I can distinguish an eagle call with the best. To me, the eagles sound a lot like an old rusty wheel. I have yet to hear one scream. Maybe they do but not to my knowledge. That screaming is done by a hawk. Almost every raptor that appears in the movies has a voice over by a red-tailed hawk. This bird has that signature scream down pat! It is a red-tailed hawk scream that is famous! After all these years of believing otherwise, I feel sort of cheated! Not really. Maybe the hawk should feel cheated.
Recently, there have been more red-tailed hawks flying about the Bayou. These birds are huge! They hunt by soaring high above the ground and can spot a mouse at about 100 feet. Their dive is graceful with feet extended and they rarely miss their mark. The hawks will take anything they can overpower and have been known to pick up unattended pets occasionally. Back on the farm, it was quite common to lose a fat hen or baby pig to a red-tailed hawk.
Even with their reputation of being ruthless hunters, it was nice to see three hawks soaring overhead a few days ago. Hearing them scream brought a smile as I thought of how Hollywood misled us all by using a hawk instead of an eagle. Deceptive! Hollywood...how dare you!!! Now, about that horse. Did it make it through the desert?
