Killer Buicks and Birds

(Originally written Spring 2005)
You may have heard me yapping about the family Buick curse…we’re destined to have at least one at any given moment, and it will break or cause much grief at the least opportune times (doesn’t it always work that way?) The current tally is two; Dad has the sweet blue ‘73 Electra 225, with a 455 engine that naturally only runs on premium gasoline ($$$!). He doesn’t drive it much right now…go figure. I still have my old ‘85 Regal, which has survived several resurrections and just refuses to permanently die. Or maybe it’s just cheaper to fix than to buy another car….at any rate, it’s still going.

The most recent trials of Buck Buick (my car):
The current Buick vs. Bird Total is Buick 5, Bird 0. Two robins, two crows…never hit either kind of bird before. Usually it’s pigeons or doves that misjudge the distance between their flight route and the grille of the car. The crows I hit at the same time…both on the windshield….same with the robins, but they were a couple days apart. All the birds met their unfortunate demise within a week and a half.
Wait…I said 5 birds, you’re thinking…that’s only four. The fifth occurred just when I was thinking the streak was over…and then it happened. On the way home from work, something flew out from a field by the road and went THUMP under the right-front wheel. I was confused… “Birds don‘t go THUMP!” They just disintegrate into a poof of feathers…so of course I turned around and went back, thinking it was one of the numerous kestrels that catch mice in the fields.
Nope…it was a Northern Flicker, AKA a pretty good-sized woodpecker. Almost 12 inches long…(no need to comment on that, OK? I know there's a joke just begging to happen.) I felt bad, but what could I do? And how many people hit woodpeckers with their cars, anyway?
Someday the birds are coming for me a la Alfred Hitchcock, I just know it. When I (accidentally) hit the robins, I thought it was justice served for the ones that used to chase me and peck at my head in one of the greenhouses, but now the favor lies with the winged ones…

Speaking of birds, the golden eagles are back! I heard the female screeching the other day, out in her nest in the treeline behind Plant 3. Usually when she’s talking the male is out cruising, so I searched the sky and sure enough, there he was, doing lazy loops over the next farm. Some of you know I’ve watched this pair for a few years now, and have witnessed two baby eaglets (two different years) taking their first flights. The adult male has finally lost his white juvenile wing and tailfeathers and is all brown, so I figure him to be about 5 or 6 years old. I haven’t seen the female yet this year, as she’s nesting, but a couple years ago the whole family (mom, dad, and baby) were flying around our field when three more adults came from the South and joined them for 20 minutes of aerobatics. I don’t know how often that happens, but it was incredible to watch! I’m hoping I’ll get to see this year’s family when they leave the nest.
The kestrels were back in S-Section this past spring, but not like years past when they would follow us around from bay to bay, waiting for us to scare out a vole or two. This year they seemed a little stand-offish and spent most of their time on the power lines across the road. Noisy critters, but nice to see them again. At least there weren’t as many mouse parts lying around the perimeter of S-Sec to clean up (or step on…eww).