Eagle Eyes

3/16/2004

My daughter was the one who started all of the events that led up to this entry, so perhaps we should allow her to frame it as well.

She does have sharp eyes, and when the driver is just paying attention to the road, often its one of the passengers that spots something out of the window.

We were on a highway tooling along outside of Phoenix todward Saguaro Lake when she yelled out from the back of the car. "Hey, Look there in the tree."

By the time I glanced across the road the tree was a blur but sure enough there at the very top was a bird.

A big bird.

"It's a bald eagle."

"No way."

"It was too, I saw the head and it was white."

I noticed a left turn lane up ahead and started to slow down. "Then I'm going back and getting a picture."

"OH NO YOU WON'T. THE CARS ARE FLYING BY, YOU'LL GET KILLED."

(It's left to the reader to figure out who said that.)

I hesitated.

New son in law piped up in the back, "You only live once, go for it."

I hit the brakes hard and slid into the left turn lane. Although the speed limit was 65, this was not a full blown limited access freeway, and there were places to turn around.

"DON"T DO IT. YOU ARE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED."

"I'm doing it and that's that!!"

"Alright then, if you insist on dying, pull into that gas station, get your camera all set and I'll switch with you. I'll drive and you can shoot from the passenger window."

Sounded alright to me, so we pulled into the gas station.

Just after pulling out, I said, "Ok, now drive down the shoulder of the road."

"NO, People don't drive on the shoulder."

"Then pull over right here and I'll walk up to see if it's still there." A quick run down road showed that the bird was just a bit too far, so I returned to the car.

"Ok, look, just drive down the shoulder until I tell you you to stop."

We got a bit closer, and she starts to pull out into traffic.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! "The shoulder, stay off the road."

"Be quitet, I'm driving."

"Just pull ahead 10 more feet."

"Now stop. Stop.... STOP STOP STOP"

Daughter interjects from the back seat... "OMG I'M ON A NATIONAL LAMPOON VACATION."

I admit, every time a car drove by our car shook with the wind blast and I decided to try and steady the lens on the mirror on the right side of the car.

But just then a police car drove by. "OH SHIT, THE POLICE. NOW I'M IN TROUBLE."

You can't get in trouble for being on the side of the road. GET CLOSER!

And we did, finally, until we stopped directly in front of it. That's the final image in the series below.

Granted it's not Nature Magazine quality, but it sure was great to see the legendary eagle, right up close, and kind of personal.

And that folks, is how we spent part of our Sunday.

(First image is blown up from the photo above)