Good neighbor



I was driving home from the bookstore yesterday and found a new, wonderful neighbor sitting atop one of the elm trees that's been marked for Dutch Elm disease. A full-grown, white headed bald eagle. One of my neighbors was standing on the sidewalk staring up into the tree, which clued me into it. I pulled over and talked to her. She said it had been sitting there for 15 minutes or so. The top branches of the tree had already been stripped, so it looked like an old dead tree: something eagles love to roost in. The neighbor also said she'd seen him before flying in the neighborhood.

I live two blocks away and we have a resident pair off redtailed hawks that feed off the local pigeon population. But I'd never seen the eagle before.

I live in the inner city. Who'd a thunk?