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Hello Eagle Friends,
I had a wonderful day in the valley today. It was 14 degrees when I arrived and 31 degrees when I left. Powder blue skies set against the blacks, golds, and the pristine white snow created such an impression inside me, that winter will remain in my thoughts long after the snow melts.
I hiked to the river and immediately found very large coyote tracks, that or they are the wolves. I found hundreds of them, all since yesterday. They went and circled every place I knelt
to photograph the winter bugs last Friday. They were on the other side of the river bank, and I wondered if that is where they live? That is where I video-taped their howls.
Now I'm even more convinced I need to hike over and explore that untouched area. Maybe I'll get to cover my Wolves of Whitewater sooner than I thought. I found someone else had been back in my eagle area too, a fresh set of snowshoe tracks circling all my posts, seemed odd to me, but then this is public land.
Dancer was on the nest. I could only see his white feathers on the top of his head, and his corn-yellow beak through the sticks on the nest. Daedee was flying above the east bluff.
She landed in the cottonwood grove I had just left and watched for awhile and took back to the skies.
As I was sitting on the south side of the nesting area I had four white-tailed deer come around a bend and drink from the river. That was interesting to watch. The lead buck stood watching the smaller deer and he led them that back up a ravine and they disappeared into the million brown saplings, colored just like them.
I hiked out and moved to nest 2. Judy was up on the nest covering her shift for their day 16 incubation.
Nest 6 is sitting. I will count this as Day 2 for them, as they were sitting yesterday too.
There was a pair of golden-eyes on the pond swimming with the common merganser. I shot several images of them. The geese were on edge--I think it's those coyote. I heard them barking behind the hill before a bluff. I suspect I'll be seeing more of them as the spring comes into season.
Nest 5 had both eagles on the nest and a branch to the south of the nest. This is day 12 incubation for them.
Nest 3 is sitting, and I have documented this as Day 2 for them as well. It'll be good to see whose eggs hatch first nest 2 or nest 6, being they both started sitting the same day.
Still no nesting on nest 4. They are the oldest eagles in the valley and maybe their later nesting schedule will result in eaglets that hatch in warmer weather, with a better chance of survival?
I found a dead opossum on the road. I pulled over and checked to see if it was a female, and if so,carrying any young in her pouch. There was an undescribable sadness in the way she laid dead on the side of the road. Maybe it was the way she clutched her right fist, like she wasn't ready to go and was clutching the earth to hold on. Maybe it was the way she twisted her left arm holding her side. I guess that is what made me think to look for little ones.
Her body was still soft, and warm from the sun. I picked her up and laid her in the snow, off the dirty road where people wouldn't stare as they drove by. She deserved that much respect.
No cottontail today. No other opossums.
It was such a powerful weekend being at The National Eagle Center, I felt a little less-traveled today, a time for soul-searching.
My fortune cookie tonight: Trust your intuition. The universe is guiding your life.
I'm looking forward to day 63.
See you on the journey--
Lisa
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