Eddie is quite a character!

I thought it would be fun to share some of Eddie’s adventures and let you see some of his personality. He is quite a character, with a sense of humour and mischief, sometimes aloof and goofy and on many occasions, showing real compassion.

It was a hot summer’s day at Ballantrae Golf Course and I had just finished doing my rounds, checking for geese. There was not much happening on the geese front at the moment, so I drove my golf cart to the back nine of the golf course and hung out behind the green of a par five hole. My dog Biene was busy sniffing around and Eddie was sitting on top of the cart. We were just sitting there enjoying the weather and watching the golfers come and go, when I noticed a cart with two people in it, pull up to the tee.

Eddie was still sitting on top of the cart sunning himself, too quietly I might add, which should have alerted me to the probability that he was up to something. Beine was lying beside me in what little shade from the cart that she could find. I watched the two guys take their golf clubs out of their golf bags and step onto the tee. First one took his shot and then the next and I watched them put their clubs away and climb onto their cart and start driving down the fairway. Right at that moment, I felt Eddie take off from the roof of my cart and saw him heading directly towards them. The thought ‘Oh crap’ went through my mind because I could tell exactly what that goofy bird had in mind! Allow me to explain. Whenever Eddie would go off for a fly, when he was done, he would fly back to my cart, coming in low, straight at the windscreen looking for all the world like he was going to smash into it, or, if it’s down, to come right on through, before, at the last possible moment, sweeping upward in a graceful arc to land upon the roof.

This was something he had learned how to time so as to avoid sliding right across the top and onto the ground, which had, on more than one occasion, provided me with a few moments of real hilarity, much to his dismay. I just knew that his intention was to land on their cart and I thought “these guys are going to freak out”. Sure enough, Eddie comes in for his usual perfect landing straight at the windscreen and all I see is a guy dive off each side of the cart and roll onto the ground, the cart moving on without them down a slight decline until it stopped. “Ahhhhhhhhhh! AHHHHHHH!” I heard. “What the **** is that?” Eddie was now sitting calmly on the roof of their cart. The two guys were on the ground covering their heads and amidst all of this, I put my arm in the air and Eddie headed right back to me, looking quite pleased with himself after his lovely display of flying and landing manuevers.

Those poor guys had no idea what was going on and as Eddie was getting closer to me, I heard a loud combined scream “LOOK OUT!!” Right then, as if the whole thing had been perfectly orchestrated, Eddie landed on my arm and the guys jumped in their cart and came as fast as they could down the fairway, convinced, I think, that they were going to find someone being mauled by a huge wild bird! They drove up to me and in utter disbelief, letting go a string of expletives with words of having a heart attack mixed in, I saw that sure enough, their windscreen was down! It was all I could do to keep from laughing! Meanwhile, Eddie was sitting calmly on my arm as if nothing had happened and he was bored by the whole thing. They had no clue what was happening, they were still sure I was going to be hurt, their minds unable to catch up to what they had just experienced. Their hearts were still pounding and once they realized that Eddie was with me and not just some random crazy bird, they calmed down and we all started to laugh. They excitedly began to explain in unison, with wildly gesticulating arms, what it was like to see this huge bird flying directly toward their cart and how when they saw Eddie coming right at them, they thought he was going to come right through the open screen, hence the comical dive and roll!

I told them how funny they looked diving off each side of the cart! They said that they had had many experiences on golf courses but never in their wildest dreams did they ever think they would see something like this. They stayed for a few minutes and took pictures so that they could tell all of their friends, saying “No one is going to believe this!” and then they went on their way. I could hear them laughing all the way down the next hole. I turned to Eddie and asked him “What were you thinking, scaring those guys like that?” I swear he understands me and he was very nonchalant in his response to me. He stood tall and regal as eagles do and gave himself a shake as if to say “You have so much to learn, grasshopper.”