Day 15, Wednesday, 1/23/08, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles

Hello Eagle Friends,

Today was a gorgeous, bitterly-cold day. It was on -15 with the wind chill today. It was mostly sunny, and birds flocks were everywhere I went.

I hiked to the river and followed some coyote tracks that were running alongside what looked like a deer dragging a leg. I'll have to watch for this deer. Huge tracks tell me it's probably the buck from last fall.

I moved on and drove all the way to the Weaver landing on the frozen Mississippi, but didn't find any bird activity there.

I headed back to my project area and found a flock of cardinals filling up on berries, then a flock of some sparrows, a red squirrel, a couple of nuthatches, and that red-bellied woodpecker was out scavenging for food. Only a few robins were hanging around all those frozen grapes dangling with hoar frost.

I found one eagle, at first I believed it was the nest three pair, he or she was sitting on the frozen marsh, and her mate flew by and kept going. Then after that I was driving and I caught the sight of another eagle nest, way back off a goat prairie.

I wondered how I could miss this nest all these years, but then it wasn't just me who had missed it, no one knew it was there. The DNR has only spoke of two nests in that back area. Every one I have talked to only has spoken of two nests.

So I photographed it, it was empty too, and I wondered then if that eagle I had just photographed a half mile back was possibly that nest owner. Now I want to find a way to hike back
and check that nest area out. There is no way to it other than straight over a bluff which is easily ten miles from the highway, five miles another direction, and I know that, because I've
hiked part of that area.

I found all eagle nests empty today which didn't surprise me at all, and at Daedee and Dancer's nest I found a branch they must be trying to chew off for their nest, there was another long stick in the same tree that was chewed off.

I didn't find the golden eagle today but I did find Donny Paul, Daedee and Dancer's second oldest eaglet, he would be 21 months old now. He was flying in the nest area and Dancer came in
and drove him out to the SE bluff.

I know it was Donny Paul because he is the only eaglet I have ever seen in the valley with a perfect ivory oval markings on his tail. That and the relationship with his dad was still very
evident.

I didn't find any wild turkey, no animals kills, I didn't have any animal following me, and I didn't find any more rabbits who must have jumped over the edge of the river bank. However, for
a Wednesday, a cold, January winter day it really was quite a story.

I kept telling myself, "Keep looking for a story." It finally paid off finding that fifth eagle nest, then finding Donny Paul with Dancer.

Tonight I photographed the full moon rising again. Moon rise was at 6:41 PM, and it always amazes me how fast it comes up. If you blink, you miss it.

Looking forward to Day 16.

See you on the journey--

Lisa