Bird of Prey!!!!

So yesterday morning I was sitting on my back porch minding my own business when I heard a great noisy fuss on the roof overhead. I thought, "Oh great, the birds are trying to get into the gutters again," and peered out the back window to have a look at the intruders.

As soon as I reached the window, down swooped a terrifyingly large black-brown bird of prey, following a smaller version of its own kind. After a consultation with the internets, I confirmed the identities of the birds:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Eagle

I remember that when I was in junior high we had some people from a raptor rescue visit and show off some of the birds in their care. The golden eagle was one of them. I know that they do live in CT, but my god, what were they doing on my roof? The female was apparently the larger of the two. I wonder if they were getting ready to have sex? O_o...

Compared to the eagles, the red-tailed hawk was quite petite!

I hear these birds have snatched away and eaten people's pets. It's a good thing that Lucas is an indoor-only cat!

On the lighter side, I've noticed something strange going on in my back yard. More sunflower seedlings I didn't plant! The ground beneath our forsythia bush is literally blanketed with them, and the top of our hill is covered with dozens of sprouts. At first I thought that the spent sunflowers I pitched into the brush last year were just reseeding themselves, but then I remembered my failed attempted to set up birdfeeders in specific parts of the yard. Every night the raccoons would empty the seeds onto the ground. I had one feeder hanging from the forsythia bush and another hanging from a pine tree behind the master bedroom. This spring, we swept out some of the fallen needles and dirt from beneath the pine tree and used them to fill in an eroded spot on the hill. Oh my. There were a lot of sunflower seeds in that mix...