Thirty years ago, I was driving to work one morning. I saw a large owl perched very close to the road, so I stopped, unrolled the window, and asked, "Who is going to die today?" That evening, when I got home and was tired out, my mother called and asked if I could come and see my father? She said he was "acting like he was dying." So I went over, and indeed, it was not an act -- my father was in the process of dying that night.
Another night, my younger son called me to say stay in for the next 24 hours. He had just left my cousin's house, and a very large owl flew very close to his windshield. It scared my son & daughter-in-law, though for different reasons. Within twelve hours, an angry, intoxicated off-duty law enforcement fellow had shot my cousin and his son, because he was frustrated that they were driving the speed limit. He was in a hurry to buy more beer, surely a reason to ignore speed limits on a country road. My cousin lived, though his son died in his arms.
Since those are not chipper examples of bird coincidences, let's talk hawks and eagles. Chief Waterman and I were conducting ceremony as an audience of over one hundred participated in the re-burial of 120 human remains. This included Native people who had come from South and Central America to learn from Paul, and locals. A journalist was asking Paul questions, when he pointed up to the sky. A hawk was circling above, and a single feather dropped from the sky for Paul.
When my youngest daughter graduated from college, a Seneca chief said the opening prayer. Two bald eagles appeared low in the sky above us, to the audience's delight. They circled until the prayer was complete, then disappeared.
Now, these are merely some of the times that I've seen owls, hawk, and eagles. Perhaps they come to mind simply because I tend to associate them with specific events. I couldn't say with any certainty if they were omens or omelettes. Perhaps both. I do remember when Paul and I were traveling, and at one stop, a young lady of the "New Age" belief system asked Paul what such bird experiences mean? He said that they mean that Mother Earth has given birth to living creatures that inhabit the land, water, and sky, and that we should be aware of them.
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