When I looked out the front window, I saw a giant falcon fly into our Gravenstein apple tree, and perch on the lowest branch, only a few feet off the ground.  This bird looked like a peregrine falcon to me, with distinctive striped/dappled patterns on its golden chest and on both sides, giant yellow-orange talons (that seemed as big as its head) and a beautiful, curved beak.  It was watching activity at our neighbor's house across the street, where tree trimmers had been clearing branches away from overhead electrical lines.  There was a pile of branches in front of our neighbor's driveway–and a mother and her young son had stopped to look at all the branches.  The falcon watched all this with great interest, settling into our apple tree where it remained for about 10 minutes or so.

The falcon's head swiveled around to see me watching it–even though I was inside the house, about ten feet away from the window.  I was amazed to see how alert and aware this bird was, and how keen its vision must be.  After the falcon had rested in our apple tree for about ten minutes, it flew directly toward me (!!!) and then just up above me, to the right, to sit atop the roof over our front porch!  It saw me watching it from a respectful distance inside the house.  I could tell it was watching my every move, since any time I made even the slightest movement, the falcon swiveled its head to stare at me intently.  The falcon also kept a close eye on our front yard, no doubt aware that we have a gopher who burrows there regularly.

After many minutes of sitting on the porch roof, the falcon flew off toward our backyard.  I went to look out the kitchen window, and a few minutes later, the falcon flew right toward me a second time, (!!!) so I got a perfect view of its beautiful golden breast and outstretched wings–and then it flew up over the roof of our house.  I returned to the living room, to see if I could spot it in the front yard, but saw no sign of it.  I then returned to the kitchen a few minutes later, when I saw the falcon fly directly toward me a third time (!!!)–looking at me as it approached the house, and then landed atop our front porch roof once more.

This falcon was so gorgeous in full flight, and so regal when keeping watch on the yard, but the it's most remarkable quality was how much love I could palpably feel from being in the presence of this beautiful bird.  I was especially overwhelmed with how much love it had shown me by flying directly toward me, while looking me in the eye, THREE times that afternoon.  I see a lot of birds in our garden, including crows, bluejays, house finches, and hummingbirds–and in the entire 30 plus years I've lived here, yesterday was the first time a bird ever flew directly toward me while looking right at me the whole time.  Only one other bird has flown up to a window and peered in at me on the other side, and that was a hummingbird several years ago, who seemed to be saying “Thank you!” to me, for having refilled the nectar in the hummingbird feeder.  This summer I've also had a few hummingbirds hover close to me, and sometimes fly into a spray of water when I'm watering the yard.  All of those moments are memorable, indeed, but this felt truly exceptional.