Bird Watching: I'm no pro..., 1 by snakeadelic

snakeadelic wrote:
I had the literally jaw-dropping experience last summer of watching an adult golden eagle glide in for a soft landing about 50 feet in front of us and maybe 30 feet up when I realized what it was as it came almost directly towards us from the passenger side. My neighbor stopped the truck in the middle of the Pioneer Mtns Scenic Byway here in MT, just stopped to watch it fly by. Of course I couldn't get the camera outta the bag, my hands were shaking so! I have had a number of irreplaceable "nature nut" moments in my life, and ol' Goldie will always rank...even if nothing's come close to beating being knuckle-deep scritching in the fur of an adult male snow leopard who was groovin' on the attention big-time :D (Used to have a friend w/USDA exotics licenses up down & sideways...visiting his house was pretty much a miracle of things I'd never seen alive & close before!) We're hoping to head back out where we saw the golden eagle in May if we can afford the gas, because the overlap of Pacific Slope & Great Basin migratory species is mind-bending and I know a *great* free-access birding site :) Got the first photo entry on my life list for the Eastern Kingbird there, shown below.