Bird calls

[Delwin D Fandrich]

Ron,

I will never forget the first -- ok, the only -- time I watched a bald eagle
make a power dive from about 1,000 feet (about 300 m) and pluck an unlucky
salmon (or something) out of the water.  It was in the '60s and I was in
Alaska courtesy of our Big Uncle and there weren't a lot of eagles left.
So, I was happy to just to be able to spot one flying around.  Talk about
masters of the air and all they survey!  How that eagle knew that the salmon
would be just where it was when he/she started that dive is still a mystery
to me.  The eagle set course, dove and made very few course corrections on
the way down.  It was way to far away from me for any associated sounds to
reach me, but I swear I could hear the sounds of impact the moment that
eagle hit.

As somebody said...awesome.  One can feel a bit sorry for the robin and/or
the salmon and still find room to respect and marvel at the skill of those
wonderful birds of prey.

Del

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----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Nossaman <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: March 30, 2000 4:25 PM
Subject: Bird calls


> There I was this afternoon, tuning the fifth of six, looking out a big
> floor to ceiling picture window onto Tabor College campus, wishing I was
> out there in that beautiful day with those robins instead of inside trying
> to install music in these poor old pianos. I was about two thirds
comatose,
> and sinking fast, when a little kestrel, or maybe it was a kite, BLAZED
> down out of the sky and SPLATTERED a robin on the ground about ten feet
out
> from the window! He sat there for a couple of minutes, cloaking his catch
> with outstretched wings until all movement stopped, then took off, barely,
> hauling the victim to someplace safe for a leisurely lunch. Woke me right
up.
>
> BTW, I scored the dive 6.0. VERY impressive.
>
> Ron N