This eagle crashed into a home in Neptune after knocking out the glass on a storm door.
By MICHELLE GLADDEN
Imagine you are at home, amid weekend chores, when the sound of crashing glass results in a surprise visit from one of nature’s fastest and fiercest birds – the eagle.
That is what Carol Barrett witnessed as she descended from the second floor of her Shark River Hills home in Neptune on the afternoon of Jan 25.
“My husband went out to run errands, I was upstairs getting ready to vacuum,” Barrett, 70, recalls. “I thought a picture fell off the wall. On my way downstairs, I noticed the bottom half of the glass door…an eagle was standing on the glass panel.
“When I first looked, I thought the eagle was outside, so I kept going down the stairs. But the eagle was inside the house… I was frightened. I didn’t know what to do. I froze on my staircase. I stood there, my heart was pounding, and I didn’t know what to do.”
In hindsight, Barrett believes her beloved three-year-old Cavapoo, who had been basking near the storm glass door, must have become agitated when he spotted the neighborhood cat.
“Jimmy likes to lay there and look at the comings and goings in the neighborhood,” Barrett said. “He freaks out when the cat comes around.”
Barrett believes Jimmy’s animated behavior is what caught the eagle’s eye. After checking on her beloved pup, who’d been cowering in a corner of the couch, Barrett took note of the bird.
“I look over at this eagle and the only thing I could think to do is to scream really loud, ‘Oh my God,” she said. “He flew out and sat by my mailbox. I removed the glass panel, slammed the front door, and checked on shaking Jimmy.”
Once she knew Jimmy was alright, Barrett went to take a picture of the eagle.
“Did you see that eagle by the mailbox,” her husband Patrick said, meeting her at the door.
“See him, he was in the house,” she told him.
Barrett said she doesn’t think the eagle was seriously hurt but is concerned that a bird of prey paid her a home visit.
“They are capable of catching small dogs,” she said.
