Soft Landings

I was busy looking up the other day, it is something I do when I tire of digging in the dirt. That’s when I noticed one of the tall fir trees had quite a bend at the top. It was obvious that the bald eagles have been using the tree to land  for a rest stop.

It got me to thinking about how many trees have these bird-made landing pads.  I started really looking at the trees to pick out just how many are landing sites. We have a pair of eagles that come frequently to check what is going on at the farm, and if there is anything for dinner along the river. I was certain the huge birds would surely leave traces of their visits. I was surprised, just from the house and surrounding yard area, I could see at least six Douglas Fir trees that have the shape of raptor intervention.

I was about to get the camera out to see if I can show you how graceful the limbs have been cleared and the smooth bend in the flexible tops that sweep off to one side, when I noticed the bends seemed to be all facing the same direction.

This is definitely not a scientific discovery or anything that will change the world, but the tops of the trees are all pointing southeast. One tree has two tops and both of them are pointed southeast. Maybe I’m on to something here. Or maybe the birds just know the correct angle needed to sit and watch the river flow towards them as they sit on their aerial landing pads.