Hello Eagle Friends,
What a wonderful Saturday today was, even if the groundhog did see his shadow today, and has the majority of us all believing we'll have six more weeks of winter. So does that mean in Australia they get six more weeks of summer? Don't you ever wonder what their groundhogs see?
I'm not falling for a groundhog's prediction I'm more convinced by the eagles behavior, not one eagle, but 12, that spring will be early this year. Today was overcast and we had some snow flurries. I have to admit that I really enjoyed the hiking around in the 31 degree temperatures more that the -3o's from the last couple weeks.
The first critter I met on my trails was a handsome fox squirrel who barely touched the ground as he scooted across the snow drifts and jumped up on a stump. I lifted my lens, and if I were a hunter with a gun, that one second that he looked back at me, would have been his last, but I think animals size you up in a millisecond and know if you are friend or foe. They gather something from our gaze on them. He gave me but one moment before he scampered up the bluff, looking back over his right shoulder several times to see if I was following.
With the weather a little warmer today I wanted to explore some areas that were off the beaten paths, and to see what other wildlife stories may be going on that I've been missing.
For those who don't hike in the winter I wanted to let you know that it's not easy going up and down bluffs in the wet snow. You stick to the ground when you want to slide going down, and when you climb up you plan to step and stick, and you do--but only for a second and then you slide back, usually four feet for every step up. Your best bet is to aim for saplings while going up and pull yourself along with each step.
I found a lot of corn cobs that were gnawed to the cob and a lot of squirrel and rabbit tracks around them, but then I saw hundreds of birds from Junco's to woodpeckers, and blue jays raiding the standing corn and devouring the fallen corn cobs.
I heard a mystery woodpecker drilling on a tree with a call unlike any bird I was familiar with in these SE Minnesota woods, fields, marshes and rivers. There I was deep in the woods, well, out of the cornfield anyway, trying escape the city and the telemarketers. I stood still only for a moment, and listened and strained to hear the bird again. I moved down the bluff a little ways and sat. I thought surely I'd arrived in a peaceful place; just me and that mystery bird I was narrowing in on.
Out of nowhere, I had a scene of beating wings descending all around me like a scene from Alfred Hitchcocks, "The Birds", except instead I got a flock of dark gray with white breast, juncos, at least thirty or forty of them coming down and around me knocking snow clumps from above all over me. They flew in, dropped snow, and left, taking that woodpecker with them, for I didn't hear him again.
On my hike back to my truck I followed the steps of a ruffed grouse up the bluff. This was a quick walk and even shorter wildlife story. It's one of those stories I file in my Under 100 Words Wildlife Shorts folder.
There I was, tired, worn, in need of a drink of water when I looked up to the top of the bluff, knowing that I only had a short walk from there to reach my truck where I could drink my water rather than scoop up and eat the fallen and well-tread snow.
To ease the thoughts of my want for water, I began following a fresh set of grouse tracks leading up the red raspberry bushes covering the east side of the bluff. In between scratches from the thorns on the bushes, I kept looking for his roost, a place I could come back and wait for him to drum his call, his perch in the woods, a place usually marked with a thousand droppings around it.
This time, I didn't find the birds coveted drumming log. It's true, this story ended at the top of the bluff with my truck in full view. However, every story is worth one last look at not only the words written, but also in the details left in shadows. For when I looked down again, this time I saw the ending had already been written. There wouldn't be any tracks on the cornfield from this grouse. For there in the snow was this birds footprints leading to a perfectly fanned tail print that was pressed deep in the snow signaling his departure flight.
A flight that probably ended over on the west bluff, another slide and climb journey, on the other side of my truck. That's probably where he drums, too, and he just comes over here to eat corn.
I found a couple dozen places to revisit when I have time to sit for awhile. Today I wanted to cover ground, not sit still.
I didn't see any deer today which didn't surprise me for as much noise as I was making going up and down hills looking in every tree and down every log for a rabbit who hopped across a fallen log with a good twenty foot drop below.
From there I picked up an opossum's trail. I know the opossum traveled about a quarter mile from one tree before stopping, pausing, shedding a handful of hairs, and then kept going. Maybe he stopped because he had an itch, or an inkling that something was following him.
Because that's where I picked up the coyote's tracks. Both walked on, going down a ravine. The opossum's tracks ended when he went into a fallen log and out of the other end. Then a couple a couple sets of tracks again just before he stepped into another fallen log, and that's where his tracks ended. I wonder if this fallen log was a possible home, it was at least resting spot, his place in the valley that was well-used and trampled.
The coyote had the same idea I did, except he had it first. I went to check the other end of the log and when I got there I looked down and found the coyote's tracks right next to mine.
I just can't imagine with all the dead opossum I see on the roads, with no takers I might add, I questioned why a coyote would even follow this rodents trail in the first place. I don't think they would eat them, even if half-starved. I haven't even seen a crow take after a road kill opossum.
I found eagles at nest four area, just one, and I found a pair of eagles at nest three area perched together in a tree. Courtship will be starting very soon.
As I moved along I saw a dark figure by nest 5. I couldn't believe it. Then I looked around and saw another eagle, the mate. After all this time I finally found the two nest 5 eagles at their nest 5 area. I have the first documented pictures of this pair for my project. They were near their nest but not perched on it, so this nest is still considered inactive until I see them on it.
I didn't see the nest 6 eagles at their nest, but when I reached the deer carcass, there were two eagles that looked like it could be them, heading north, which was in their nest's direction. So that could have been them, since all other eagles were accounted for.
There was another eaglet up by the deer carcass. This looked like David Roger Kraig. An eagle who I'm sure is actually a female, not a male as he was named. He had the physical size, the beak size, the darker yellow-orange feet like his dad, darker feet than Donny Paul who had bright yellow feet. He had the longer tail, and the mottled coloration of a 2 year old eagle maybe a three year old, but, I can't be sure.
I want to be sure, but I just am not convinced it was him. I made a "pssp" sound and he turned right to me. So maybe it was him, maybe not, but he didn't fly when I stepped out of my truck to shoot a picture of two eagles leaving the area.
When I reached Dancer and Daedee's nest, I was worn out from hiking all day. I didn't figure I would see them, so I didn't bring all my gear. I wanted to hike with a light load on my last hike for the day. I can't say that in four years I've ever done that. It was just too dark to shoot a good shot anyway, but I've shot when it was darker, raining, snowing and worse. That shouldn't have stopped me.
Of course, when I got out half way, I spotted Dancer sitting high on a cottonwood watching me hike in. I knew that I should have brought my gear, and we all know that when you don't have a camera (or in my case a big enough lens), you miss shots.
I re-learned my lesson today, and shot his picture using my video camera to bring him in. Of course the picture isn't for quality, but to remind me, every time I look at it, "bring the lens next time!"
Looking forward to Day 26.
--See you on the journey.
Lisa
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