That was the name of a post put on Facebook the other day by Larry Granat.
Almost two years ago I was out cruising along the Fox River on a sunny, relatively warm January day with my daughter Leah. We were out looking for places to explore.
On a long dead end road that follows the south bank of the river we were letting the car idle along. Out in the river, sitting on a log, was a bald eagle. I stopped to take a few pictures with a point and shoot camera I carry around.
Another car was stopped a little further down. A much nicer camera was sticking out of one of the windows taking pictures of the same bald eagle. I flagged down the other car as we idled past each other.
Larry and Deb Granat were nice enough to agree to email me some better shots of the bald eagle, and a couple of days later I got a few.
Someday I’ll have the extra cash to get me one of them better cameras.
I also did a write up on that day’s events that showed up here:
Even though we apparently live about a mile from each other on the south side of the Fox River in Yorkville, I’ve never seen Larry or Deb again. Instead, thanks to our posting on the internet, I follow them around Kendall County and the Fox River while they are out exploring and looking for birds and they follow me around while I go out exploring and looking for more remote places on the Fox to go fishing.
Which brings me back to the title of this post. A little over a month ago Larry started the Kendall County Bird Page on Facebook. The post includes some nice photos of what he believed to be a golden eagle. A discussion followed on whether or not the eagle seen was a golden eagle or perhaps an immature bald eagle. It’s a tough call sometimes. In the thread Larry announces that it was indeed verified as an adult golden eagle.
You can read the whole thread, and see more photos, here:
Golden Eagle flew over my house, December 11, 2011
When I was growing up in Chicago, if you would have told me I would some day be living on the edge of the Chicago Metro Area, I would have said you were crazy.
If you would have told me that I would some day be living on the edge of the Chicago Metro Area and seeing bald eagles, falcons, hawks, owls, deer, fox, wild turkeys and now a golden eagle, I would have thought for sure that you had lost your mind.
And yet, I’ve had deer come peer in my basement window.
Flying squirrels that let us come up and pet them.
Wild turkey at my front window.
I watched a great horned owl swoop down on my black cat when it mistook it for a skunk. Hawks and falcons are seen floating by on a regular basis with prey hanging from their talons. A couple of months ago I stepped out into my backyard, which is fenced, to find a wild turkey out there wandering around.
Somewhere in that mile between me and Larry and Deb, I know there are coyotes. I’ve heard them howling down along the river. I’ve seen their footprints out in the woods. My goal is to track them down and get some photos of them. They are the ghosts of the woods, I think this is going to be one of the hardest things I’ve done while out exploring.
That does sound a little crazy though, doesn’t it.
