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.
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
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