I saw two bald eagles circling above me in the sky..
i saw two a few years ago from a fire lookout tower
on July 4th. and when i ws on the way to town to do
my first radio show, one flew over me as i was crossing
over the river..i took that as a good omen for my show!
Once while driving in Oregon, I saw a bald eagle over the
ocean with a fish in it's talons...i was heading straight
for the water and while watching the glorius sight of the
bird almost missed the turn in the road...that might have
been the last one i ever saw!! i was transfixed..luckily
i turned in time..

I saw a mountain lion...it has just killed my milk goat.
She (the lion) was treed by my dog and sat in the tree
for hours. Kingfishers regularly fly over my house with
their checkerboard wing flight and their white necklaces
cackling s they go. Dipper birds, Ouzels, can often be seen
bobbing along in the streams. once i saw a bear..it was
ly8ing down in the meadow. luckily my dog did not see it,
or there could have been trouble. I was fortunate enough
to find (and release) a fox caught in a leg hold trap.

Last night i saw a possum crawl under a foot bridge i was
crossing. We have ring tailed cats here too. and raccoons.
oftten a wood pecker-like bird will drill holes in my apple
tree seearching for bugs..i think it is a sap sucker. Lady
bugs swarm here....sometimes the air is red with their little
wings. Did you know that they can bite? just a small nibble,
but when you are in a swarm of them.....they hibernate in the
brush here.

One of the most amazing natural phenominon i experienced
recently was to see a group of a few dozen dragon flies
flying in a cirlce...about 10-15 feet in diameter, they
were from 2-6 feet off the ground. they were in an open
meadow, and kept circling in this smallish area...i do
not know what it was--perhaps some sort of mating ritual?
i was so fascinated i went and stood in the middle of the
circle to see if they would continue to stay in that spot,
and they did!! they were zipping around but managed to steer
clear of me, and each other, except for an occasional clip
of the wings as they buzzed around and around. I wish I knew
what it was, and wish i had gotten a picture. A friend of
mine holds a special significance for dragon flies as she
saw a swarm or flock or whatever of them at the time that her
brother died, and thinks of them as carrying his spirit. It
did seem like quite a spiritual experience being in their midst.

Factoid:
dragon flies have 4 wings and land with their wings out stretched
damsel flies (smaller, daintier) have 2 wings which fold when at rest.