Eagle Snacks

I saw the eagle, an immature eagle with gray feathers. He is the one who likes to play in the park, buzz the ducks and watch them fly in every direction. He even riles up the swans; they hiss and wag their tail feathers.

I watched him do laps around the park today, dropping down into the water, skimming the surface. I watched him for a good 10 minutes on a Sunday afternoon. He put on quite the show with everyone stopping to point and notice him playing and screaming. But if only he would have been there just a few moments before.

A lady and her little dog, one size bigger than a rat, with a bright colored sweater were walking along the water. The perfect eagle snack. One close fly-by and then SWOOSH, the dog would be gone. The woman would get hysterical as the eagle stole "Bee-Bee," the whole park would see that bright sweater, hear the dog yapping.

Surely, the story would be on the front page of The Bulletin. The woman holding remnants of the sweater, crying and gasping. And then the controversy would be begin. Just like the cougar controversy, just like the bear controversy, the controversy on whether something should be done about the eagle.

I can see the hunters all volunteering to go on a major man hunt, or in this case dog hunt, to find the guilty eagle. People like me who witnessed the event would be interviewed. "What color was the eagle? Which direction was it flying with the dog?"

Parents would be quoted in the newspaper as saying stupid parent things like, "My kids play at that park. And if it can carry off a small dog, I wonder what ELSE it could do?"

And the environmentalists would be screaming, "The only reason anybody wants to shoot the eagle is because the hunters aren't allowed to shoot the ducks while the kids are feeding them breadcrumbs. They are just mad that they have to wait for them to fly out of the park."

I am not sure the outcome, I do hope the eagle would win. But I am sure the movie "The Birds" would be a hot new seller at our local video store.

By Linda English