Today, I think I spotted a golden eagle in our neighbor's backyard. I'm not a bird expert, but whatever this bird was, it was a lot bigger than what we normally see in our trees. I was able to grab my binoculars to get a better view, but when I made a second trip away from the window to grab the camera, it flew away. Camera shy, I guess.
The best way to describe what I saw was a large brownish bird with lighter-colored tail feathers and also along both sides, along the leading edges of its wings. It had a long raptor-type beak that was pretty much black and had gold eyes. It was perched rather low in the tree and had its back to me the entire time - the neat thing was how far it could turn its head around- it was basically able to look directly behind it with just moving its head.
It was a cool, and rather surprising, sighting - at first I thought it might even be a juvenile bald eagle, but after looking at pictures on the 'Net, I'm 95% sure it was a golden eagle because of the color of the feathers on its shoulders and head.
We're fortunate to have a little creek that runs at the back of our lot along with being close to a nature preserve and thus I've been able to spot several kinds of owls, red-tailed hawks, woodpeckers, lots of different song birds, a coyote one time, and foxes a couple of other times. The last week, we've been seeing deer pretty much every evening too, including 13 tonight as we sat down to dinner that put on a rather nice show for us as they played and wandered around behind the house. I should really leave my camera out at all times I guess, but other than the deer (which I was able to react to in time tonight), it's not like these are everyday happenings.
After being able to witness a lot of wildlife over the years at my grandparents house in northern Michigan, it's always enjoyable to see some of the same critters hanging out in Sterling Heights. I'm still waiting though to see some wild turkeys in our backyard. That would be camera worthy!
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