Oooh, look, a dead animal!

Officially, we live in town, but our house is located on the edge of a development with some grassy hills, the river and the mountain behind all that, so it doesn't always feel like we are in town. Because there aren't any houses back there, we get to see lots (and this year there are so many they are becoming pests) of deer roaming around, sleeping and doing other "deer" things. When we first moved in, there was a hawk that lived in a big ol' pine tree out there that would just float past our living room windows back then we also found bear scat on the sidewalk in front of a neighbor's house and since then there have been mountain lion sightings on the other side of the hill. We've also seen a fox or two on the hill and I've woken in the night to the howling of coyotes before. We've been lucky enough to see some of the wildlife Montana has to offer right from the comfort of our warm home. It's pretty cool.

Yesterday was a first, though. I was sitting at the kitchen table, reading blogs, when I noticed something large fly by the window. I figured it was a hawk, but it wasn't. I didn't get a great look, but at first glance, I thought it could've been a bald eagle. But it flew away too quickly to be sure. Well, then later in the day, after the girls had gotten home from school, it flew past the window again, this time going towards the hill and so I dropped what I was doing, yelled at Kera to "Come here, quick", almost scaring her into falling off the counter that she was precariously balanced while getting out a cup, and ran to the window. Actually, I stopped to help her not fall first, then we ran to the window together.

It looked like he was on a pile of something on the hill, but we couldn't see real great, so we went to my bedroom which is on the most southwest corner of the house, to get a better look.

Lo and behold, it was indeed a bald eagle and it was eating off of what I assumed was a dead deer. It was so cool to see. I was impressed with how big of a bird they are. My pictures dont' even do it justice because even zoomed as far as I could, it's still not too clear, drasted point-and-shoot.

Can you see the deer in the upper left corner? There were three of them, walking near but not too close, checking out the situation. It's been so cold here, Erik and I wonder if an old/sick deer bedded down to sleep there the night before and just never got back up again.

The eagle would pick at the meat and then raise it's head, keeping an eye out for anything threatening. There were a few magpies trying to get in there, too, but they stayed clear while the eagle was there. I also saw another eagle take off out of the big tree, think about landing there only to keep flying. So, actually we saw two of them almost literally in our backyard yesterday.

Pretty stinkin' cool, eh?! :-)