The Bird

My kids and I nearly made road kill of a beautiful bird of prey today. I saw it on the shoulder of the road long before we got near it. I slowed down and gave it a wide berth expecting it to either stay where it was or fly towards the woods. Unfortunately it did decide to fly towards the woods- on the other side of the road. The bird would have flown right into my car had it not realized its current route was suicidal and abruptly changed course. For at least the next ten seconds, the bird flew down the road in the right lane as I drove next to it in the left.  Yes, I was in what would’ve been the oncoming traffic lane had there been any traffic, which there almost never is.  That arrangement worked out perfectly; we got a great look at the bird. This was not a bird designed to take off from the ground and its impressive wings were working hard to gain elevation.  When it was finally gone and I was back in the correct lane I looked in the mirror and said to my daughter, “That was pretty cool wasn’t it!”

“Yeah!”

“Do you know what kind of bird that was?”  I asked.

“It was a cawk, daddy!” 

“I think you mean, hawk, honey.  But actually it was a bald eagle. Did you see its white head and tail?  That’s how you know it was a bald eagle.  But let’s go back and practice. Can you say ‘hawk’?  Listen to me:  ha, ha, ha, ha, hawk.”