Sunday, September 13, 2020

Serendipity

The new neighbors across  the way and the new neighbor  who coud not build on the "unperkable" property, and instead, put in a dock for 6 his six figure boat with  two 100 HP outboards makes weekends a bit noisier than usual.  I do not begrudge them their  weekends and holidays and perhaps we also were noisier when we first moved  here having visits with the grandchildren, but I am older now and would like a more peaceful neighborhood.  All of our quiet neighbors have left for retirement communities and a younger crowd is moving in.  This crotchety old one is going to have to accept the motocycle, skidoo,  large motoboat noise along with that of weekend lawmowers and leaf blowers, I guess.

It was noisy on the river this Sunday while I was weeding.  I was in my front yard and the noise on the river was muffled and blocked  by the house.  Hubby,  on the other  hand, felt it was time to  mow the lawn!  There were several hours of  THAT noise and then suddenly he was way up by the driveway and I had peace and calm once again.  Amazing how body tension disappates  when all is calm.

I could hear my natural neighbors once again.  I heard a woodpecker making some call.  I heard the song of an unusual bird  and wish I was able to find it.  Birds are migrating and we never know what is coming through this month.  

My face was covered in sweat with sweat drops falling off my nose as I put down the clippers and got  my camera.   I sighed as the quiet  of  the  woods settled  in.  I was on my knees taking a photo of a very small gray tree frog that I had carefully avoided  while weeding earlier.  He was about the size of  my fingernail. Then in the quiet I heard an unusual sound.  

It was a very close whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.  I looked toward the garage wondering if  hubby was in there and had turned on some fan that had trouble starting.   It was an odd quiet sound and I just knew it was mechanical.  Then a shadow  crossed over me and as I looked up a  large bald eagle flew 12 to 15 feet over  my head and was crossing the lawn heading toward our gate and other trees at the front of the yard.  

Yes, I was too much in awe of  his prescence to  turn  the camera on him fast enough.  His flight was so quiet that you would only have heard it when there was no other noise aroundIt reminded me of the very quiet flight of the barred  owl  that we had unintentionally followed down the river on our second canoe  trip  the other day.  These birds of prey are certainly most stealthy.

21 comments:

  1. What an experience! Was the eagle sizing you up for a flight?

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  2. I was thinking that you could take out your hearing aids, then I remembered that you didn't wear them. Perhaps you could wear ear covers until the new neighbors learn to be quiet. How magical were these moments.

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  3. How wonderful to hear the beat of wings in the air. I thought about you wearing noise canceling headphones, but then you would have missed that sound. And sight. Thanks for sharing it with me. :-)

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  4. Oh! You had your moment, and it wasn't spoiled by a camera, which is a very odd thing for me, of all people, to say. :)

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  5. Agree, I could do without the noise of motors and mechanics so I could hear the sounds of nature. I do like the screams and squeals of children in the neighborhood though.

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  6. Nature is so soothing. Too bad so many don't appreciate it.

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  7. The flight of the bald eagle after the previous noise...perfect!

    My husband mows on weekdays when the work-a-day neighbours are away from home. There is enough noise on the weekends already.

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  8. I love eagle fly overs. I consider them a favorable omen.
    I wish you some quiet, peaceful days in between the weekends.

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  9. Such a quiet joy! May you see him again.

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  10. I can relate for the need for quiet. I am close to the airport, small enough to not have been such a problem until the National Guard section started housing and flying F35 jets

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  11. May you have peace and quiet enough to see him again many times.

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  12. I thought you were going to say you looked up and saw a drone. I was going to say "Time for the shotgun."

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  13. If I'm to enjoy hearing the voices of children in the neighbourhood, I guess I have to tolerate the noise of their parents. But the very best sound is the beating of a bird's wings. It must have been lovely to see the eagle pass overhead!

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  14. the main noise around here is lawnmowers and trimmers. fortunately no one has leaf blowers. no eagles but we do have hawks however the noisiest fliers around here are white wing doves.

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  15. Oh, what an awesome sight to see in such close proximity.

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  16. Now that we have doubled glassed ourselves, little sound at all.
    https://ellenshead.blogspot.com/
    You might like this glass lady.

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  17. Noise even in the quietest of place, such as a village, is amplified by the machinery men love;). As for eagles, we have had a pair of sea eagles settle on the North York Moors. They are of course monitored, the male flew for about 630 miles over the landscape before returning, to map out the area maybe, but they wont breed till 4/5 years of age.

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  18. You might read this.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/09/fox-news-trump-language-stelter-hoax/616309/

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  19. It's pretty quiet over here although we have two neighbors with young adults or children. Parties lasting until 1:30 am in the carport and talking right under our bedroom window was finally too much and I did talk to them. They stopped right away which was fabulous. Thank goodness! Now the other neighbor has a preteen who somehow needs to bounce a basketball near our window at 10:00 is irritating, BUT we just turn our white noise maker. Ahhhh well....

    Gracious! I was just going to write about how wonderful it was for you to see that eagle pretty close up. I don't think I would have remembered to get my cellphone out to take a photo either.

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  20. Oh gosh! I thought I left a comment yesterday, but I don’t see it. It must have been so exciting to see that owl in flight. I know what you mean about noise in the neighborhood. We have that problem at night sometimes.

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Take your time...take a deep breath...then hit me with your best shot.