Day 52, Friday, 2/29/08, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles

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Hello Eagle Friends,

It was a day of eagles in the valley. The weatherman was right, the snow fell as promised, but only deposited about 2 inches, maybe three. However, it wasn't the snow, but the blowing winds that made the drive treacherous both traveling to the valley and coming home today. The roads were slushy, and drifted and you don't want to hit those going 80 mph--just kidding--55 mph. The temperature was 34 degrees, but with those 40 to 50 mph winds it felt like it was 20 below zero.

I bundled up and hiked out to the wolf post by Daedee and Dancer's nest. I chuckled at the sight of fresh coyote tracks that circled half way the wolf snow sculpture, Em and me made, unless, he was after that real snow--snowshoe hare.

I didn't see Daedee or Dancer today. All I can do is keep the faith, and keep checking back.

When I reached nest 2, Judy was on the nest sitting deep inside brooding what I believe is a six-day-old egg, maybe there is 4 day-old-egg, too.

I could barely see her white feathers on her head, until a loud, muffler-less, neon green truck drove by and startled her up.
Why they built their nest so close to the highway, only those eagles know. Like I have written before, some eagles seem to prefer to be closer to people, and others shy away.

As I sat I watched seven deer run up a bluff behind the nest about a half of mile away. They all went up single file, and then all of a sudden I saw all seven deer running down the bluff leaping over each other. I wondered what had scared them up, and what was "up" that scared them down. Was it people? Was someone driving them? Was it coyotes? A wolf pack? I searched the bluff but saw nothing that seemed out of place, maybe it was the cougar.

I took a picture just as Judy lowered her head down below the nest. I think this is a neat shot that captures the "all-knowingness--always aware stare of an eagle."

As I watched Judy lifted and flew off the nest landing silently in a nearby tree. I wasn't sure why, until I saw The Mayor, her mate flying in. He landed on the east side of the nest, and carefully walked around to the north side. He then carefully laid down into the nest.

There is no doubt in my mind now, that they are incubating. They wouldn't be switching shifts to just go sit on a nest, unless there was a reason. I believe that reason in a fist sized ivory oval egg, maybe even two.

I moved on to the trumpeter swan pond, hoping they'd be there, but they weren't. Several geese laid up on the ice, while several others preened up on the shore. The nest 6 eagles were not in view. So I moved on.

I found one of the nest 5 eagles sitting contently in their nest. After watching this eagle for two days I am convinced that it is
incubating an egg, too.

The first week of April will be the week I'll be expecting nest 2 and 5 eagles. Nest 2 may be a couple days earlier.

I didn't find the rabbit today, nor the black opossum. It was the day of the deer. I couldn't get the little spike buck out of my
mind all morning. He was so handsome laying down in the snow. I wondered if he was the three-legged deer I found awhile back.

Twice now I have spotted him in that same area laying down in the snow. I wonder if the other deer come join him at dusk, do they tell him to stay there and come back for him? I'm going to watch that spot more closely now.

I can see a book forming already, The three-legged buck.

I found both eagles working heavily on their nest at nest 3. Nest four had one eagle, and when you look at that picture above, look how deep that nest is. I'm going to see if any one knows the age of that nest. I'll bet it is 15 to 20 years old. If you look at the eagle on top you can see it's easily four eagles tall.

I was at the end of my route and turning around when a flash of slate blue and black passed overhead. I knew it was a kestral hawk. I watched it land on a thick, branch the size of a man's wrist. The pine needles added a lovely shade of green to the rusty red branch.

I walked slowly, and as quietly as I could through the deep snow which had worked its way up my snow bibs and was going into my boots melting on my legs. I would take a few steps and freeze, take a few more steps and stop. I shot a couple shots each stop.

The kestral hawk was sound asleep. He never even looked back until I was less than fifty feet below and back from him.
He looked over his back and I could see the blood-lined beak and I knew he had been feeding on a mouse or something.
It reminded me of the hawk from last year that I watched eat a field mouse in front of me.

I left him to his napping and moved on. Nest 3 eagles were still working on their nest and nest 4 was eagle was walking all around the large base of the nest. I think they could have quintuplets and not feel crowded up there.

Nest 5 eagle was still on her nest and as I took a bend there were six or seven huge tom turkey's drinking at the base of a bluff. I am sure they were the same ones as yesterday as they took the same path up and over a fallen log. I don't know if I have ever seen wild turkey as big and cantankerous-looking as them.

By the time I reached nest 6, I found Dick perched above the nest, but he immediately flew down at record speed to something on the other side of the river. I waited for him to return, but he didn't while I was there. I had fun watching all the black ducks tipping upside down in the water and paddling the water, treading it while upside down, splashing it in the faces of the others.

Then I watched four deer on the backside of the oxbow crossing quietly between ponds. They were wee little deer, with what looked like two older doe's.

I decided I better get moving if I was going to have time to check Judy and The Mayor again before I left. When I reached their nest the second time I didn't see any eagles on top of the nest, and my heart sunk again. I just couldn't be wrong on this. The eagles wouldn't leave that nest if they were incubating.

That's when I caught a glimpse of a couple white head feathers and a yellow eye peering out a peep hole on the south side of the nest. Oh there was an eagle up there all right, a smart one that is guarding her egg or eggs with her body heat while the 50 mph winds rippled the sticks above her head.

As I passed Daedee and Dancer's nest I slowed but didn't see anything going on. The last to breed, the last to leave their eaglets--that's our Daedee and Dancer.

I was almost out of the valley when a young buck dropped off a bluff in front of me. He stood there looking at me, and then that 85 degree incline trying to figure out how he was going to get back up.

There was another buck on the other side of the ravine, and one above his head. I eased over so I didn't scare him and he jumped right up that incline in one leap and then slid backwards. When he reached the ridge and joined the other buck I pulled ahead a snapped off a couple shots.

When I look at that second bucks face I see a million reasons to believe there is a God, for I don't know how anyone could make a creature as lovely as this buck, with longer fur than the others and not be watching over every one of those hairs.

I'm looking forward to day 53.

See you on the journey--

Lisa

Day 51, Thursday, 2/28/08, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles

For those that are going to my Lisa's Walk The Talk Show, this site is temporarily forwarded here.

Click banner to go to my host bio and listen to show at showtimes, Fridays at 11 AM EST, or to download archives anytime. This week is Pt. 2 Flashes of Hope.

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Hello Eagle Friends,

As I type this the snow, as predicted, is falling fast and furiously. It was a an exceptional day in the valley. The weather was
partly cloudy when I arrived and the air temperature was 11 degrees, and about minus 2 degrees with wind chill.

I found Daedee right away this morning. Catching a shot of her was another story. She was hunting something on the river bend about a mile south of her nest. The trees were covered in hoar frost and I wanted that pictures of her flying through the white laced trees. Instead, I watched her swoop down twice and then I lost her in the tall riverbank trees that survived both floods last year.

As I sat down in the underbrush I looked for winter bugs around me. I'm getting ready to make a revised and expanded edition
of my Winter Bugs book. I'm going to spend the last twenty some days of winter 2008, adding insects, and water life to my
collection, but I'm undecided whether I'll add these to the new edition of my book.

While laying on the ground I was on a steep slope and I had a hard time digging my foot into the snow while trying not to slide down the hill. I had cardinals and chickadee's perching above me and I could hear a blue jay. I heard some wild turkey, too, but I was confident they would stay in the spruce grove. That's where they like to roost and they spend a lot of time there during the day.

I photographed various ice crystals, lichens, moss, and that's when I found a bark beetle, but he wasn't moving, so I don't know if he was dead or in a pupae state. I don't know very much about those insects. As I photographed him, a red-eyed fly walked into view and stood right on top of the bark beetle. I wish I could give you a scientific name, but I just don't have the want or heart to bottle these critters up to kill and dissect for positive identification. I'll just call him a red-eyed fly of some sort--and by doing so, he get to live.

As I was photographing those critters, one of my favorite green iridescent beetles walked over. They look like dahl sheep of the bug world, with their big knob on their head, and I wondered how it balanced that knob without falling forward from the weight of that big head.

When even after four years, I can't even balance my top-heavy, Dana wireless word processor on my lap as I type, without it falling off my lap and crashing into the ground. I was amazed at how well that critter balanced his load.

I finally came out of the underbrush, and a tree branch snapped back stabbing my right eye and causing an immediate reaction of tears flooding from the injury. I walked across the ice-coated snow, crunching into the snow every few steps and only lost my boot once to the ground. It's supposed to be cloudy the next four days with rain-showers. Rain--a sure sign of spring.

I hiked to the wolf snow sculpture and looked for Dancer, but he was no where around. No worries. Nesting fever is just beginning.

When I arrived at Judy and The Mayor's nest I was glad to see The Mayor sitting, and from what I observed, I'm quite sure now, he was incubating an egg. I stayed there for awhile and every so often he would let out his loon-like cry. That's how I knew it was him. That and his darker feathers around his eyes.

As I photographed him I watched him disappear into the nest for several minutes at a time. I convinced myself that either he
or Judy had been on the nest the past two days -- I was just not seeing them. We call that going to the basement. Daedee and Dancer have done that for years. They are there, then you don't see them. We are convinced they have a basement in those nests. (I'm joking)

I would be tempted to use a camera on a pole but that just isn't true documentary to me, that would be like lifting up rocks looking for bugs for my winter bug book. I would love to put a mirror up on pole like I've seen scientists do, but that would not hold my trueness to the project either. That would cross my line of what is seen naturally, from the sidelines, and what is contrived by man's invention.

I would rather capture a picture so still, so perfectly sharp that I could see the egg or eggs mirrored in the highlights of the eagles eyes. That would be true, that would be real. Meanwhile, I'll just watch the eagles and document how often they get up and down off their nest, how long they stay, when they switch incubation shifts, and so on.

I counted today in as Day 5, that means 25-31 more days before I hear the cry of an eaglet on nest 2.

I moved up to the trumpeter swans pond.

Sadly, the swans have left us. This time I think for good as they weren't back by the time I made my second pass.

I'm so thankful for their beauty and the shows they gave me unselfishly. I learned a lot about trumpeter swans during these past 50 days (they were here 58 days total). I learned they don't fly from their fears, or the beating wings of the geese and ducks around them. I learned the other ducks and geese used them as guides to their food. I learned they guarded all the ducks and geese who followed them. I think it's only fair to add that there were a few days that they guarded my heart too.

They were a "timed gift" from the Creator himself, and I was just the one recording their activities during their stay. I have to admit it was hard adding "Checked out Early--left key in room" to my daily journal.

The nest 6 female was up on the nest fitting it for size. Laying down, getting up, laying back down, getting up, walking around adding bedding, laying down, getting up. Another seemingly young pair of eagles, anxious to get their family going, if they ever get their house finished.

There was an eaglet calling out from the top of the bluff. I didn't see it, but there is no mistaking an eaglets cry. I figured maybe the male eagle was up with the eaglet. It wouldn't surprise me to see them still together another month. That has already been documented with Daedee and Dancer.

As I left that area I saw something up ahead and I was smiling at him like I had found an old friend. There he was, the black opossum, walking down a two foot snowbank right into the road. So I pulled up. "What are you doing? You're going to get hit running around a highway at noon." Now I know he doesn't understand human-speak, but he understands tones and pitches.

He looked up at me with those beady, brown eyes and froze. He turned around and went right back into his den of dens. You wouldn't believe the tunnel system this guy has. Surely, this can't be the work of one opossum. He had connecting rooms, tunnels, hides, and a scat area room. There was a favorite fruit source tree near the scat room, a huge pile of frozen grapes, at least a thousand of them, were laying in heaps all over in the snow creating a huge purple circle. A purple drawing "Harold" himself couldn't have colored with his purple crayon.

He had several paths to the river, and a couple more hides up the way. I have never seen opossum as frequently as I have this past month. So far, I'm the only one who has ever seen a black opossum down there.

As I drove on I found a pair of eagles circling in the air, but I'm not sure where this pair is coming from. I've seen them three times this week. They could only be nest 4 eagles, as all others were accounted for, unless, there is a 7th nest. This pair always leaves behind a bluff over a marsh, and I don't know where that area leads. Once the snow melts I'm going to follow it, and I'll bet I'll find a 7th nest.

Nest five had an eagle in the nest, but it was just fitting it to its preferred shape. As I filmed it got out and moved sticks around and went back in.

On my way to nest 3 and 4 I stopped at a water-filled ditch. I decided I was going to shoot those ditch fish today. Armed with my video camera and macro lens I headed over to the ditch.

However, those ditch fish are smarter than your average fish. They saw me coming because that darn sun had to come out just then, and cast my frumpy old figure into a long lean shadow (oh those were the days), and projected my shadow right into that ditch. Well, that started an instant ripple in the water as little "sunnies" darted back and forth to grasses; green on both sides.

I aimed my video camera right on them, but all the camera would do was focus on the shadows, the tree shadows and mine which grew fatter the closer I got to the water. I didn't get a single moment of video, nor one single photo. I swore I was the slowest, worst photographer in the world.

After four passes, I gave up on ditch fish. Instead, I thought I'd look for aquatic bugs. So I laid down in the ditch, best I could with out getting 100% soaked. You have to be within an inch to two inches of your subject when shooting at that magnification; which is about the equivalency of, I don't know, I guess it's like taking a bug the size of a pencil dot and making it come out the size of tea cup poodle.

I had the cable guy out last night to work on some network issues. As he was leaving he saw my snake photo and fell in love with it. "That's a great snake picture."
"Oh, yeah, that snake." I replied. "I called that one Satan." The guy looked at me and I continued, "Well, he kept following me all over a marsh seeking me out with his forked tongue and foggy blue eyes--he couldn't see very well because he was getting ready to shed."

The guy looked at me funny. Not sure whether I was joking or not.

"People either really like that shot or they hate it." I shrugged, "You must be a snake person."

He looked over and saw a 16x20 giclee' of my jumping spider. "That spider. . . that freaks me out. I don't like spiders." he added in his Ukrainian accent, but his eyes remained fixed on it. "How big was that spider in real life?"
"About the size of dime."
"How did you make him so big?"

I laughed, and pulled out my Winter Bugs book."He's not alone--you gotta look through this book."

He was fascinated by the book and the insects in it.



As I lifted my wet face out of the ditch water, complete with duck weed on it, I remembered my other words to the cable guy while I was explaining my aquatic bugs in the book, "I fell through the ice a lot doing those aquatic water bugs."

"You did?"
"Well, of course, I had to find thin ice to start with to photograph through it--I couldn't break the ice as that would be changing the documentary. Sometimes I laid where an animal stepped through."

It all came back: The putrid taste of scummy water mixed with pond slime was something I thought I'd never taste or experience again, but there I was doing it all again--all for the chance of capturing something worth noting. Something that said, "bug was here."

If it wasn't for my microscopic eyes I wouldn't have noticed the little snails inching along the silt-covered bottom. I wouldn't have laid down, and I wouldn't have noticed the heaps of gray snow fleas drowning in the water, floating by with six legs outstretched. Well, you know that I could not possibly save them all.

I guess it was inevitable, completely expectable, that as I laid there face down in the ditch that a vehicle would and could at some point pass me. I just hoped I would be finished and out of there before it happened. I'm sure he wondered what that crazy lady was doing laying face down on a camera in the ditch water.

Oh well, it'll give them something to talk about in town. I'm sure they are running out of stories by now. I couldn't leave now, I'd just discovered some flatworms. Several planaria moving about as the leaves they were on rippled sideways in the small current flowing past me, and overturned.

For a moment, there I was back in high school, we were half way through our advanced biology class. Me and my lab partner Dave taking turns looking through a microscope. He always called me Dave, and I always called him Lisa, except this time it was the real Lisa who was given the ardent task of slicing a planaria right between the eye receptors on its head. I thought it was cruel to the animal, experiment or not, and I didn't want to do it. However, I did it and I could almost feel that blade cutting into me at the same time. The experiment worked. Within a short time period our flatworm regenerated a second head. and Dave and me both got an A.

I really thought on first glance they were blood suckers or some kind of ditch leeches. Creatures who were ready and able to stretch up and slip into my mouth while I breathed sideways out of my lips into the water so I didn't fog up my camera eye piece. I'm telling you this is no task to take lightly. You're either in it for the haul, or you shouldn't be chasing ditch fish or what follows, to begin with. You never know what you'll find while looking for ditch fish, and today was no exception. It made me think of someone else too.

Those cousins of mine. Why if I would have had cell coverage I would have called them right from the ditch. "Hello, this is your cousin Lisa, the your favorite Yankee . . . . " I would have called my own north vs south war and paid them back for that snipe hunting experience I took in Oklahoma. I'm going to plan a date, get them up here, and take them ditch fishin' by the light of the full moon.

I was soaked through to my skin, and the current of water was running right through my pant legs. I took a couple more sots and that's when I looked at my camera counter. I was down to 82 shots, and I still had nest 3 and 4 to cover, and my entire path back. So I gave up the ditch, and stood up wiping the silt from my mouth and lips, and began squeezing the water out of the ends of my hair.

At Nest 3 one eagle was perched in the nest tree looking into the nest. Nest 4 was empty.

There was no belted kingfisher, no rabbit, no flock of robins, no red-tailed or red-shouldered hawks on my path today, but I heard a red squirrel chattering, and it made me think of that little one yesterday who stood so bravely under the hawks view chattering away to protest the hawks appearance, and probably save his neighbors.

When I reached the trumpeter swan pond again I found a pair of common mergansers had moved into the swans hollow, along with a half dozen black ducks. I looked everywhere again, just in case the swans were there and I was missing them.

I purposely saved about twenty minutes for a second stay at nest 2. I arrived and spent fifteen minutes with Judy and The Mayor. The Mayor was still on the nest and Judy was flying above the bluffs just beyond their nest and as she flew overhead The Mayor would tilt his head up and look at her, and she would look down.

As I left the valley there was a big eagle sitting roadside. I pulled over and shot a half dozen pictures of him and thanked him for the escort out.

I picked Em up and we went down to the bookstore and bought up a handful of kids books to enjoy, and a couple for me, too.

I'm looking forward to Day 52.

See you on the journey--

Lisa

Day 50, Wednesday, 2/27/08, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles

For those that are going to my Lisa's Walk The Talk Show, this site is temporarily forwarded here.

Click banner to go to my host bio and listen to show at showtimes, Fridays at 11 AM EST, or to download archives anytime. This week is Pt. 2 Flashes of Hope.

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Hello Eagle Friends,

I think I found the shot I want for my Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles today. It's the shot above of Dancer sitting next to Daedee. This is one of their favorite perches they share. Every time I look at them together, an eagle pair
that has been together for at least the past 8 years, maybe longer. I feel so blessed to be with them.

It was another bitterly cold day. It was minus 4 with the wind chill when I arrived. Air temperature was 15 degrees, but that
hardly counts when the wind blows taking your breath and burning your face.

I joke how I have a better tan than the people going in and out of the tanning salon next to my studio. If they only spent a day
in the field with me they could throw away their VIP passes to a tanning bed.

I hiked out from Daedee and Dancers, passing the white wolf in pursuit of an ever-shrinking real snow-made, snowshoe hare.

When I reached Judy and The Mayor's nest I knew I was wrong about them starting their family. They wouldn't be leaving an egg exposed to these winds. I didn't find either eagle anywhere near their nest. Still a small hope remains that Judy was laying deep in the nest and I couldn't see her. Daedee has done that to me many times over the past three years.

As I pulled around the bend to nest 6 I realized this was the hot spot for the morning. The trumpeter swans were laying on the
ice, nothing exciting there, but all the geese and ducks were watchful. All sat up, and there was a lot of bird communicating
going on from loud quacks to honks of the geese.

Then I saw him, the nest 6 eagle fly to his nest. As I shot the wind blew him off just as he was landing and the winds were so strong he curled his feet back up and just hovered for about ten seconds. The female was busy laying the nesting materials around the inside. It looked like they had some tree moss inside, which I haven't seen before. Usually the eagles are lining their nests with grasses and mud from the river or marsh edges.

I don't think the female wanted the male up there trampling up her newly laid materials for she kicked him off. Then he flew around and returned, but was booted out again. So he flew over and perched about a hundred feet from me. The crows came by and screamed at him, but he didn't move.

They went after a red-tailed hawk instead. I really don't like to see this red-tailed hawk spending so much time next to the eagles. I am concerned that when the eaglet(s) arrive they will make an easy meal for the hawk. I would almost think they took the nest from the red-tailed hawk, but I saw that eaglet come into their nest a week or so back. I don't think any hawk is going to reclaim a nest after two years.

It's odd that every eagle nest has a pair of red-tailed hawks that perch nearby.

There I was taking images of the swans and birds when the snow began falling, drifting downwards on the pond changing the entire landscape.

I watched Dick, the nest 6 male sit, preen, outlast the crows and then he tried going back to his nest again, but the female walked around the nest and he was suddenly lifted above it again.

This time he flew across the ponds over to the river, and I watched him swoop down on something. I aimed my lens between the branches just as I could see the fire in his eyes and he dove back down again. This second swoop sent alarm calls through the mallards and blue-winged teals on the river.

Dick picked up speed and dropped his talons coming down a third time and that sent the entire flock of ducks into widespread
hurry to get out--while they could.

Defeated the eagle flew back and perched up on a tree above the river watching the last ducks disappear into the north.

I moved on and found the nest three eagles active. One eagle was on the nest but joined the mate a few trees over. Then the mate flew down on top of the eagle that had just arrived knocking it off its perch.

I didn't see any activity on nest 3 or nest 5. The cottontail wasn't around on either check.

Up the road I spotted Sweetie, the red-tailed hawk who had landed in a two acre stand of dead trees and heavy underbrush on the edge of a marsh. The hawks appearance sent a red squirrel into a constant chatter, sounding his disapproval of the hawks arrival in ear-piercing chirps.

I walked through the snow and kneeled down to get his picture and he looked back at me through the corner of his left eye.

It was a wonderful day in the valley and I am looking forward to day 51.

See you on the journey--

Lisa

Day 49, Tuesday, 2/26/08, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles

For those that are going to my Lisa's Walk The Talk Show, this site is temporarily forwarded here.

Click banner to go to my host bio and listen to show at showtimes, Fridays at 11 AM EST, or to download archives anytime. This week is Pt. 2 Flashes of Hope.

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Hello Eagle Friends,

Today was a cold day in the valley. The air temperature was 15 degrees when I arrived, but those bitter winds made it feel like
minus 15. I found Dancer, the nest 1 male sitting riverside on one of his favorite perches.

I hiked out towards him, trying to step into the tracks of coyote to avoid the uncertain depths of the snow. It would have been
easier walking across a wall of rolling boulders than trampling through the one foot to three foot drifts of snow with flood brush underneath.

By the time I reached the opening I couldn't find Dancer. I waited for a half hour but I didn't see him come back. So I started my hike out, and I was almost to the white wolf still frozen in snow, ready to land on the snowshoe hare when I noticed I had
been looking at the wrong tree.

For there in plain sight was Dancer, who was still sitting on his long perch facing the river. As I raised my camera again, I think God was playing a joke on me, for suddenly the sun poured onto him like a spotlight so I wouldn't miss him this second time.

I hiked out and travelled up to Judy and The Mayor's nest. I didn't find The Mayor but it looked like Judy was deep in the nest, still I wasn't 100% sure. She would be there or The Mayor, if they did lay an egg.


On first glance, there were no eagles on nest 6, no opossum slowly waddling by, only a half dozen mallards and a couple geese. When looked around the trumpeter swan pond I felt my eyes look away and then down. I didn't want to admit they were gone. I knew this day was coming, but I just hoped they would stay. The geese and ducks were all on alert. The mergansers had moved on and as two geese trumpeted I heard, "Hey--how you doin lady?'"

I was so focused on the birds I didn't even hear or notice Donny and Al pull up. Mayor Donny and Al were off to go ice fishing.
We talked awhile and caught up on valley "happenings" and then said good-bye.

Every time I have to say good-bye, well, I just wish I didn't have to. I keep asking myself why I don't just move there, buy Donny's place on the top of the bluff and enjoy this valley until my last breath.

Then I heard the words again, "For I know the plans I have for you . . ." I knew I had to stay on my race, the one marked for me. I'm not complaining about my outdoor office, even if I have to drive 45 minutes a day each way to reach it.

I moved on and I pulled over to photograph those ditch fish--but unexpectedly, I was met by a six foot dusty black wings and the eagle flew a hundred feet over to a perch above the frozen marsh. Evidently, he was looking for ditch fish too.

I stood amazed at his regal appearance as the snow, the rainbow-colored crystals fell all around him. I looked back and could see with my eyes both nest 3 eagles. One was on the nest and the other in a tree next to the nest. I was unsure why they tolerated this eagle in their territory?

I've seen this eagle on the perch it left many times during the past eight years I've traveled this road. I wondered about the relationship between the nest 3 and 4 eagles. I decided I wanted to spend more time learning about them this year.

I think there are books still to write and fill on the behavior of eagles and I want to share with you, what I see, what I record and give you an inside glimpse to these compassionate raptors, these magnificent, winged beauties who move in God's timing
more than any other creature in this valley.

As I traveled on I pulled over to look at some mullen plants, flannel plants that were uncovered from a season of snow. I was just sure I'd find some bugs on it. Sure enough a little six spotted fishing spider, a quarter inch long ran off as I leaned in with my close up lens.

However the two red and black bugs remained and I shot a couple pictures of them.

I didn't find the cottontail today. I didn't find Bob, the red-shouldered hawk, or Sweetie, the red-tailed hawk or the juvenile
red-shouldered hawk. I didn't find the golden eagles, but when I passed the trumpeter swan pond again, both swans were
laying on top of the ice.

I thought about how even in ten minutes time the scene and the wildlife changes. I thought about how two photographers traveling the same path even ten miles apart would see two different worlds on any given day.


I'm looking forward to another milestone, Day 50.

See you on the journey--

Lisa

Day 48, Monday, 2/25/08, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles

For those that are going to my Lisa's Walk The Talk Show, this site is temporarily forwarded here.

Click banner to go to my host bio and listen to show at showtimes, Fridays at 11 AM EST, or to download archives anytime. This week is Pt. 2 Flashes of Hope.

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Hello Eagle Friends,

I dedicate today's blog to our Troops and their families. I just feel like I need to say: May the sign of the newest eagles of the valley, and no doubt the youngest eagles of all the pairs; may their early nesting and incubation of the first egg of 2008 be a symbol of promise, a sign to all of you who are waiting for your loved ones to come home, and to you who are serving wanting to be back home. Keep praying, keep your faith and believe. For even the young eagles know there is a time to sit still during the long wait before the birth of promise.

Today was a beautiful day in the valley of the eagles. We got a late start, but everything is in God's timing. The temperature was 31 as I neared the project area and spotted two wild turkeys scratching at the ground. One ran off and the other
remained.

Em didn't have school today so she came with me. We didn't find Daedee or Dancer in their nest area today. The snow was perfect for making snow sculptures so we made a white wolf out of snow, the one that is said to inhabit this valley.

We decided he should be in pursuit of a snowshoe hare and so we pulled the snow up and formed a rabbit. Then added the long ears. Time passed quickly and we had to leave our snow creatures and move on to the other projects.

I was anxious to get to nest 2. When we arrived I found Judy laying down in the nest. That was a good sign. Then as I was taping I heard a long, "Caaaaaaa" and I looked around to find The Mayor, Judy's mate perched high above her in another tree.

That was another sign that incubation has begun. Day 2. Still, I have to just watch, this could be preparatory nesting, too. Getting the fit of the nest, the nesting feel perfectly comfortable, just right. But then I thought that's what Judy was working on so hard last week.

We moved on and found nest 6 empty. I told Em, "You know we probably only have a week or two left with the trumpeter swans." I thanked God for another day getting the opportunity to see them again.

The mergansers had all moved on, and only mallards sat and swam with the swans today.

I looked for the opossum, but no sign of him either. Maybe I'll see him again. Maybe I wont.

Nests 3-5 were all empty. No activity at all, and no sign of any eagles.

I did find the cottontail back in his cave which is the first time since the other day. I was glad to see he hadn't been caught or shot by a hunter. Em got to see him just as he ducked in, turning and flashing his white tail at us.

Dusk had arrived as we backtracked our paths. Then I saw the red-shouldered hawk, the adult so I pulled over and photographed him and video taped him. Him or her.

I said, "Em what should we call this hawk?"
"How about Sweetie?"
"No, that's what I call the red-tailed hawk."
"How about Sweetheart?"
"No. Too close to Sweetie."
So she paused then looked at me and said, "How about Bob."
It was so funny the way she said it, I said, "Okay, we'll call him Bob."
"Bob the Hob."
We laughed.


As we passed the last bend before Judy and The Mayor's nest I said, "Hey Em, look there’s The Mayor on one of his favorite perches."

I shot some images of him, looking around, looking at us, but I liked the one I posted. It's the one I took before he noticed we were there. It was him watching his surroundings.

He was about an 1/8 mile from Judy but in a direct line of sight to her.

As we reached their nest we found her on top feeding on what appeared to be a fish. She was only up a couple minutes, and then she did something which absolutely, positively announced, "Baby on Board."

She walked the edge of the nest and pulled nesting material up to the center of the nest and then she fluffed up, and laid down cautiously straddling what I am sure, absolutely sure is at least one egg.

The first eaglets of the valley will be from nest 2, Judy and The Mayor, the Greenhorns of the eagles, their first offspring on their new nest. Probably their first offspring ever documented.

March 24 is the earliest due date, but it could be as late as the 31st, or April 1. History will show that is the worst week for snow so I'm hoping if the eaglets do arrive that week that God will keep his angels watching over that nest.

As we drove home several deer were already stirring and leaping across the road to get to the cornfields.

It was a wonderful day in the valley. It's always a wonderful day with Em.

I'm looking forward to Day 49.

See you on the journey--

Lisa

Day 47, Sunday, 2/24/08, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles

For those that are going to my Lisa's Walk The Talk Show, this site is temporarily forwarded here.

Click banner to go to my host bio and listen to show at showtimes, Fridays at 11 AM EST, or to download archives anytime. This week is Pt. 1 Flashes of Hope, we will air Pt.2 next Friday.

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Hello Eagle Friends,

It was a super Sunday in the valley. There was lots of activity in the area again. The weather was exceptionally warm coming in at around 34 degrees.
The strong winds cooled off our heat wave some but it didn't stop the animals, the birds, the insects or me from exploring.

I hiked along the river looking for Daedee or Dancer, the nest 1 eagle pair, but only found little snow fleas in the snow, those and tiny mosquito-like insects flying around me. I find it comforting to sit on the snow-covered embankment towering about twenty feet over the river and I close my eyes listening to the sound of heavily flowing water as it rushes by, always in a hurry.

I found Judy sitting up on her nest watching the traffic going by. Maybe she was second guessing their highway development?

Up the road I found the trumpeter swans standing at alert with a couple dozen geese honking, and throwing their headed up and down which means, "Get ready to fly" and then a moment later they spread their brown wings and lifted those swans right in the middle of their flight.

I couldn't believe it, why were they taking the swans? The geese circled and went north and the swans fell back out of the flight of the geese and they merely circled the adjoining frozen marsh and came gliding back in. I filmed them. It was another one of those "Kodak moments," where I had to quickly choose if I wanted video or still shots.

Their landing looked like a choreographed dance of the trumpeters. For both came in trailing each other landing at the same time and the mergansers looked up at them wondering what all the fuss was about.

There were about six female mergansers with two male common mergansers that arrived today. They were all swimming peacefully until one female crossed a male on his water path, maybe that showed dominance, or threatened his alpha position over her. He bit her several times in the neck and back and she fought back biting at him.
Then he went after her and she was smaller and lighter, quicker and skid behind her male. The one that must have brought her to this pond.

I thought I'd photographed all the excitement at this pond and was ready to leave when I noticed Dick and Linda, the nest 6 eagles perched high above their nest looking down. I was just ready to shoot their picture when an opossum walked out right in front of me.

Same place as yesterday's opossum, but I'm pretty sure this was a different opossum. So I followed him and took a few shots and left him to his day. He was so close I could have pet his head. Of course the animals over the years have always come to me, I don't try and hold them or make them pets.

I have shared many lunches with hummingbirds, butterflies, paper wasps, bumble bees, mice, deer mice, woodchucks and a snapping turtle, and many other creatures, but they are wild creatures meant to remain wild. If they come to me hungry or thirsty I never turn them away, because they'll just take it anyway, or so I've learned but holding them or petting them would make them loose their fear and that would be wrong.

I didn't find the cottontail today. I did find one eagle up above nest 5. Nest 3 and 4 eagle nests had no activity today.

On my second pass, the skies were a steel gray as I passed nest 3 again I noticed Sweetie, the red tailed hawk of nest 3 and 4, perched in an old crooked tree.
He was looking at something below just as the wind blew past, lifting up feathers on his shoulder. I shot that scene.

Further up the road I found The Mayor flying down from the bluffs, and I thought he would land on the nest with Judy but he didn't. I noticed the dark edges on his dusky-shadows, blue tail. That's when I took a good look at Judy. She was laying down in the nest.

She was laying down like she was laying on something. I smiled, because I think she might be on an egg. We'll see where she is tomorrow. Because if she is incubating either or her or The Mayor will constantly be on the nest for the next 30-36 days.

On my drive home, as I took the last bend out of the valley, I noticed an antler-less buck, a good 3-4 year old frozen, standing there motionless at the side of the highway. He
didn't even look real. He looked like a target deer the DNR puts out to catch poachers. I pulled over and he remained still, unmoved.

It didn't take long to pick up the "Human" in the air and he threw himself into a twenty yard trot. He stood peering at me between two big old trees. I filmed him and then shot a couple more picture of him walking up the bluff, and I could hear him
crunching through a crystallized layer of snow as he ascended.

As I drove home a light rain began to fall. I am ready for the rain. I am ready, just like the birds and the animals for spring to begin and for the valley to fill with chirps and maa's and mews, and all the other sounds of the open woods babies.

It was a lovely day in the valley.

I'm looking forward to Day 48.

See you on the journey--

Lisa


Click banner to go to my host bio and listen to show at showtimes, Fridays at 11 AM EST, or to download archives anytime. This week is Pt. 1 Flashes of Hope, we will air Pt.2 next Friday.

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