Close encounters

[larryhammer]

Walking home past a place where doves usually congregate on the ground, they startled into wing. They always do that, so I didn't look. So when the bird that swifted by and off across the vacant lot was russet, and larger, and a swooper, I was startled. A prairie falcon had just buzzed me from behind.

Not as close as my last flyby experience -- more like an arm's length away -- but still. Glory.

---L.

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

A smart falcon will notice that sitting doves scatter for a walking human and hang around waiting for a human to walk by...

[larryhammer]

All the more interesting if this one did so -- by the color, it was a juvenile. Given the height it was flying at, I assumed it was doing the typical prairie falcon low glide just above the ground, hoping to startle something up.

---L.

[janni.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh. Glory indeed.

What is it about flight?

[azang.livejournal.com]

They're such gorgeous birds!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Ah, the indrawn breath!

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

While I was walking along the Potomac River in Alexandria, VA last Thursday, a pigeon tried to run me down. He flew for me at head-level, and in one of those strange surreal moments where time slows down, I simply bent from the waist up to the left and let him fly on by where my head had been a few seconds (I think--like I said, timeslip) before. I could swear he looked disappointed as he went by.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

So cool...

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

Now I'm curious. Are prairie falcons as evil as magpies?

[larryhammer]

Nah -- not nearly as social. They hunt small mammals and birds up to the size of, say, a pigeon -- doves are prime pickings -- but aside from the occasional repetitive kecking and keering in early spring, rarely heard.

The great-horned owls, on the other hand, can be ominous. Especially when you're lying awake at 5 in the morning, pre-dawn: a deep, resonant "Hoo-hu-hu, hoo, hoooo." Every ten seconds or so. For. Ages.

---L.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

magpies? Sociable? I was referring to the Australian variety whose idea of a good time seem to be hunting human eyes (yes, it's Spring and yes I'm freaked out :) ). It's a very Valhalla kind of sociable, perhaps.

[larryhammer]

Well, socialable in the sense of seeking out humans....

---L.

[chibicharibdys.livejournal.com]

My dad was once divebombed by a raven in a Shinto shrine. *g* No idea why. The raven was huge.


I see my mother's books are in style...

[larryhammer]

Yup -- I finally have all 4 (3) Jaran books at the same time and can read them straight through in order.

Ravens are quite willing to go after people. Or eagles.

---L.

[chibicharibdys.livejournal.com]

My secret theory is that the raven divebombed my dad because the back of his head is very shiny.

I haven't read Jaran yet! I did read Crown of Stars and Spirit Gate, though.

[larryhammer]

Not because he was annoying? :-P

I read Jaran and one of the sequels when they came out, not knowing Kate was the Alis who'd written the Highroad books. I'm still working my way through Crown of Stars (up to book 5) -- I save 'em for vacation reading.

---L.

[borntofr4g.livejournal.com]

This is why real life needs a soundtrack.

In this specific instance, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries(sp?).