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Hello Eagle Friends,
Today was one of the nicest Minnesota days we have had since winter began. The temperature was 19 degrees when we left;
I guess I never checked it again after that. The skies were partly sunny throughout the day which gave me lots of changes in lighting with each shot.
Em wanted to go with and have a mom-daughter day. So we made a stop through McDonald's, dropped Dave off at work, and hit the road.
I found three bucks as we entered the valley. We laughed at his bushy eyebrows and decided that "bushy eyebrows" are the new razor thin eyebrows, the new "in" for this season for all those rogue bucks. Look at the photo above and tell me what you think. Should "Bushy" be in or out?
Next on the journey I spied with my little eye, a female cardinal perched above me. I don't know if there is a more interesting angle to shoot a bird. When shooting them from below, their eyes always appear to be bulging right out of their heads. Why don't I see the same thing when shooting them from above their heads looking down?
We arrived at my four year old trail, hike-in access point. Em and me found Dancer on his nest when we arrived at the white wolf post. "He's shrunk so small." Em said as she touched the white wolf's head.
"Shh." I warned her. "Dancer is up on the nest I don't want to disturb him."
Em made a little hide out in the snow, an escape tunnel for any rabbits being pursued by coyotes. She showed me how it worked. There was an entrance and an out portal and a side portal hideout. I thought that was pretty smart for a young girl.
We weren't there long when I saw beating wings arriving on the nest and a familiar calls of eagles greeting each other. Daedee
had arrived and was perched on the north branch. That is the branch that the eaglets use to do their practice flights to and from the nest.
I shot some video and stills of my favorite pair of eagles spending the last minutes of morning and the first part of afternoon together. "Em, they are getting ready to start another family."
She watched them as Dancer weaved the sticks around in the nest.
Em was crawling around on her hands and knees so I finally asked, "What are you doing?"
"I'm looking at wolf tracks."
"What?"
"I'm looking at these wolf tracks."
I looked down by her, and said, "Those are coyote tracks."
"Oh. Then I'm looking at coyote tracks. I'm going to follow them all the way back."
"Ah--Em, those will go way down to the river."
"Then that's where I'll go."
"Not today, in fact, you might want to stand up now."
"Why?"
"Well there is a young eagle flying above you right now, and he has circled you three times and dropped lower each time."
"Huh?" She looked up, "Mom, will he come down on me."
"I'm sure he won't come down on you if he thinks you are a human, but if you keep crawling around wearing that brown coat with your pink and black leopard collar, and pink snow pants; well, the way you are crawling around on your hands and knees he might think you are a wild turkey."
She stood up and the eagle flew off.
"Mom, look there is another eagle too."
"That explains it--he was just looking for his mate."
I didn't understand why Daedee and Dancer didn't fly out at him. I believe with nesting season just beginning that will all change this next couple weeks.
I photographed another book cover possibility for this years book, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles. This time Daedee was sitting above Dancer, but both were buddied up together, perched on that north branch next to their nest. If only the snow had been falling around them it would be the shot for sure.
Snow. Shh. March arrived quietly, in like a lamb, and I'd like to keep it that way. No need for a lion this month. In fact, I'd prefer I don't see him until, December again.
I drove back into town to make a call, and Em begged, "Mom, can we get some pickled eggs?"
"Yeah I guess so."
Keith laughed, "Got your dollars' worth of eggs?"
"These are so good."
"I know. I like them too."
As we drove back Em said, "Mom, aren't you going to put that Joyce lady in?"
"You bet I am." I pushed my Joyce Meyer Ministry tape back into the tape deck. I don't know what I'm going to do when
I get a truck that doesn't have a dual tape and CD player.
We moved on and found Judy on the nest at nest 2. That is one week down, three to four to go. This was a tough week for an eagle to incubate an egg or two.
There was nothing going on at nest 6, no eagles anywhere. The feeling there is so empty since the swans left. We watched the Canada geese preening and the ducks diving and bobbing up and down for awhile and moved on.
The nest 5 eagle nest was active. This is day 3 incubation for them. They are so far away that I can't identify who is who, but I've never seen a more proud eagle sitting there looking out my direction a half mile away. If I could hike there in under four miles I would.
No rabbit today. No opossum.
Nest 3 eagle was perched watching its nest. Maybe an eagle was deep inside, I couldn't tell for sure.
Nest 4 was inactive.
Em wanted to go to Lark Toys in Kellogg, Minnesota, that grandiose toy store with the incredibly colorful and artistic, hand-carved animal carousel.
When we arrived I noticed right away a huge snowman, three trucks high. "Look mom, they made the hat out of tires!" Em laughed.
"Well, we have to go get our picture by him." So out came the tripod, out came the video camera, out came the camera and
we posed by the immense snowman.
Then I saw Mike, a client and co-chair for the National Eagle Center wiping the dust off his van, "You can do my truck if you want."
He laughed, and asked, "Have you seen the mural for the Soar with the Eagles program next weekend?"
"No."
"Well come inside. How you doing Em?"
We walked into the employees entrance and met Scott one of the new owners painting this huge mural of the valley. He was
just bringing out the highlights on a bluff when we walked in. Mike introduced us and we stood in awe watching him work.
I took a few shots of him painting this realistic Mississippi valley scene and promised I'd put him in my blog for today.
(Now the bad news: I lost your note Scott with your last name on it. So, forgive me for just writing Scott. Thanks for your time today. Awesome work there!)
He has so much vision and ideas for Lark Toys and as a commercial artist he'll certainly have many scenes to explore and use to expand their business. Good luck on the mural Scott, I look forward to seeing you next weekend.
Em and me picked up some more good books. I have always enjoyed their bookstore as they carry titles that are hard to find, and of interest to all ages.
We left and Em said, "Mom, I thought we were going to sled down that hill?"
"Oh. Well, I don't know. We have to get back home to get dad--"
"Mom, you promised."
"Well, yes I did. Okay. This is the last day we can do this for a year so we better do it now."
I drove over to that hill and parked. "I'm not going to put my snow pants back on." Em said.
"That's okay, we'll just go down once. Probably won't need our gloves. Let's just climb the hill and go down quick."
"I got the sled." Em smiled pulling the blue sled from the trunk. In case you are wondering about my trunk, I am sure you can find just about every outdoor item in that trunk, my "magic hat" of outdoor gear--but the rabbit stays in the cave.
"I'll set the video camera up and we can watch ourselves going down the hill later." I steadied it on the hood of my truck
and then took a couple snapshots of us before the big "slide".
I had full intentions of shooting our pictures on the way down the hill, too, so I brought my digital camera. I have shots of the corner of the sled, a couple of Em's feet, and the top of the hill shot from the bottom of the hill.
When we reached the top of the hill we paused. "That's a lot steeper than it looks, isn't it mom?"
"Yes it is. Maybe we should go down a little ways and slide from there?" I asked questioning her.
We started to climb down, just a little lower that the top. In fact, we were just laying the slide down trying to decide who sat in front when these two little girls appeared about 100 feet away. "Let's watch them first mom."
So we watched the first girl, probably all of five sit down on her long red slide. The sun was out and you could see the glare ice like a curved sheet of glass, covering the entire hill. I guess that's when I started second guessing if I wanted to do this at all.
"Wee-eee . . . eee . . . eee . . . eee . . . giggle, giggle, bounce, bounce higher and higher and that's when I felt my mouth drop to the ground as I watched this forty-pound kid bouce up from the bottom of the hill up and over the road and onto the other side where she came to a stop twenty feet from a major highway.
I looked at Em, and Em looked at me, and we both walked to the half way spot on the hill. "Mom, we'd have gone right into the truck."
Maybe she was right, "I was going to use my boots as brakes." I had no idea that kind of speed could be had from a little sled on an ice-coated hill, but one thing I was sure of: I wasn't going to loose an eye or break a bone to find out.
I just moved over and I sat down when, wouldn't you know, that darn sled took right off down that hill. There we were speeding down that slick hill with me half on and half off, and somehow Em had jumped up and clung with both arms wrapped around my neck. She had me in a choke-hold while we swirled and twirled down the hill laughing and giggling all the way.
"Again. Once more mom, please?"
"Nope."
"Please."
"Nope."
"PLEASE."
"One more time."
So we hiked back up a little higher than the half way mark--we were practiced now. I know the guy sitting at the bottom of the hill in his red truck wasn't watching his girls for a few minutes, how could he when we were tumbling over each other rolling and sliding down that hill a second time laughing all the way?
On the way back we stopped and bought our first Dairy Queen's for the year, one small chocolate dipped cone, and a cherry Dilly bar, and chicken strips for Em. She was hungry after all that work today.
It was a great day. Tonight we picked up some art pencils, and sketch books for me and Em. We have lots of illustrations to finish and we need the right tools to do it.
That reminds me of a favorite Christmas memory this past year. I remember my grandson and me coloring our first picture and I said, "I'm going to color the world!"
He in all his 2 years of wisdom replied, "No, I going to color the world!" and then he took my crayon."
So I had to buy new crayons.
I'm looking forward to day 54.
See you on the journey--
Lisa
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