The eagle at Como Lake

for the last few days, a bald eagle has been hanging around our lake. we first noticed him on saturday morning when we were walking the boys to california street. he was sitting in the top of one of the trees on the east side of the lake, right by the walking path. we had a clear view of him, because most of the branches and leaves had been ripped away by the strong storms earlier this summer.

he was only about 10 feet away from us, his head and tail feathers glowing a bright white in the sun. we stopped and gawked because he was so rare and beautiful, here in the middle of the city. the dogs were oblivious, snuffling around the tree trunks and litter at our feet, but we pointed him out to a couple walking a few yards behind us, and they stopped and gawked, too.

we saw him again on monday morning, this time in a dead tree on the south side of the lake. i hadn't brought my camera either time, so you'll have to trust me on both sightings.

if i believed in omens, i'd say it was a good omen to see him; we are heading up north again on saturday for a week of hiking, and it was almost like a bit of the north woods had shown up in our park to welcome us. (better an eagle than, say, a black bear, or a moose.)

i'm posting this on monday night. on tuesday morning i'll bring the camera on the morning walk and see if i can spot him for you.

i love when nature reminds me that what is now urban once was wild. it's a good reminder, and it helps keep things in perspective.

***UPDATE****

it was raining pretty steadily when we walked around the lake this morning. i scanned the treetops for the eagle, but with no luck. i saw plenty of gulls, gliding on warm currents of air, and lots of ducks bobbing on the water. zillions of those small incidental sparrow-like birds that duck hunters call "tweetybirds." and, of course, two extremely soggy dogs.


but no eagle. i figure that the saturday sighting, so surprising and so intimate, was a gift, and i should not be greedy. and the walk was another series of small gifts: watching the rain patter on the surface of the lake; smelling the fresh scent of soaked goldenrod and aster growing along the path; feeling my wool socks gradually grow damp; lifting my head and scanning the slowly brightening sky.

it's one of my rules of life: be outside as much as possible, and pay attention.