Day 26, Sunday, 2/3/08, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles

 

  

Hello Eagle Friends,

Today was a perfect day for a Sunday drive, and with a little pleading, I convinced Dave and Em to ride along with me. They waited in the truck while I did a short day on my eagle project.

It was 22 degree's when we left and there was hoar frost on the trees, but oddly, only on the south side of the trees. It made for a spectacular drive. The skies were overcast which is perhaps why the frost remained until around noon.

As I hiked out to Daedee and Dancer's nest area I noticed a shoe box. It was a Dr. Scholl's shoe box wedged between two trees. Of course, I had to go look. So I hiked down the little gully which wasn't all that easy to do because I was wearing snowshoes. I had to be careful stepping on the snow-covered flood timber that was filling the gully to the top.

It's hard to imagine why someone would hike out a couple hundred feet out from the highway just to put a box between two trees, and then shoot at it. C'mon this is the woods, and there must be a million places that would be a better place for target practice than just above a gully in an eagle nesting area. Unless, they were practicing their skills on the jackalope that is presumed to be hiding in that flood brush. 

I wasn't sure whether to open the box or not, maybe it was a trick; perhaps a spring-loaded, "diamond back or massasauga rattlesnake in the box trick?" 

See, I still wonder after three years,  how the person I suspect shot up this box up, made those real, live, honest-to-God and cross his "off the Federal grant" precious heart, rattle snakes living in aquariums in his house for breeding purposes; just a handful of "who would notice anyways," endangered and permited--I mean permitless, diamond back and massausaga rattle snakes that he professed he kept there, and used to bait me to come to his house to photograph, but quickly made disappear when I refused to go to his house to "see and photograph his endangered snakes," and I turned his name over to the CO. 

Of course, I got flagged for reporting it and Snakeman got off. Now there's a story, huh?

So I stood marveling at the $49.99, Our Price, 9 W, complete with barcode sticker on the box, and wondered if scanning that barcode could be tracked to store, and then the owner. Actually, I know it can. When they can track a receipt, they can track a barcode on a box, but then what if they found the box?

I eventually opened the box, and luckily, nothing sprung out, nothing spilled; squirted; or squeaked. However, it was dusted with gun powder inside, and there was silicon beads rolling around loosely.  There was a silicon pack attached to the lid, right next to a tissue stuffed into one of the  gun shots in the lid.  There were four holes in the lid, but only three exited the backside. Hmm. Another clue?

The box was stamped May 8, 2007, or May 18, 2007. I can't tell if that edge is a "1" or the edge of the stamp.  Maybe when the new year rolled around they were out illegally target shooting in the woods when everyone else was issued their new, 2008 model, chrome and rubber finish, complete with real mahogany handle rubber stamp? Maybe the date stamped on the lid was the last shipping day for fresh-from-the-gully-jackalope? 

One thing is for sure, that box didn't arrive in the flood, or it would have debris in or around it, and it wasn't there too long or it would be "weathered."

I have to wonder if the box was there so that, if indeed, they were shooting at the jackalope, and it really was an "in-season jackalope" that they could box 'em, and ship it complete with a fresh silicon packet. Except they shot the packet and it exploded inside.

It was in a straight up line up from the cable and wires I found on the river a couple days ago. The ones I found on the river strapped to the trees, which according to our paper's senior outdoor writer is also illegal. 

Then I noticed the corn stalks hung in a half circle around the target practice box, and the deer tracks that walked all around the half circle. But, if someone were, say baiting that buck I shot images of the other day, wouldn't they put the food on the ground? Still, the pink tie on a low sapling, told me it was some hunter's trail. Legally hunting or not, that remains to be discovered.

I didn't see Daedee or Dancer, but I found Judy and The Mayor,  up by the deer carcass the DNR put out a few days ago. They were intently watching an approaching eagle.  No eaglets today.

The trumpeter swans appeared to be enjoying a wider paddling circle with more water opening daily in these warm temperatures. There were several geese on the pool today.

The only other eagle I found was a nest three eagle, perched on his or her favorite branch, facing the river. 

The dark red tail hawk was perched back on a tree and sat watching me photograph the nest three eagle, and then him.

Not much else going on. 

Then we headed over to Lark Toys in Kellogg, Minnesota.  Em got a new stuffed Zebra, and I bought a book on Jackalopes--just in case. It's a children's book and I read it to Em after dinner and we laughed so hard that I want to personally thank the author and illustrator, Jackalope by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel, for making my after-dinner-read so much fun! Here's a link if you want to check it out or buy it. It is worth every cent.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/105-0847093-5515653?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=jackalope&x=0&y=0

I also bought a book that was a real gem for my library,  The Private World of Tasha Tudor, by Richard Brown and Tasha Tudor. Tasha is 92 years old and is, in my opinion, one of our times greatest illustrators. Check her out, www.www.tashatudorandfamily.com, this book is a real treat. I'd like to have her as a guest on my Lisa's Walk The Talk Show, (www.LisaLC.com).

I'm looking forward to Day 27.

See you on the journey--

Lisa