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Hello Eagle Friends,
Remember that winter storm I wrote about last night? Well, today it hit us shutting down schools, some highways, and made slowed driving to around 30 MPH. It was 28 degrees when I left to for the valley. The roads had not been plowed on any of the country roads which made going down the steeper hills into the valley, well, a edge-of-my-seat journey.
I caught up with Cy Dodson, an outdoor journalist for Ron Schara's MN Bound outdoor show. He's doing a story on me on the eagle project. We started at Nest 6 and as I shot their eaglet from last year came in. The snow had covered the entire valley in a
heavy layer of white fluff, making it a picturesque setting for the day, but hard to see the eagles and their nests.
He filmed me as I told him the story on this nest, a little history on it, and then we watched the geese landing, and moved on.
There were, surprisingly, no goose fights today.
We moved onto nest 5. It was day 23 incubation for them, and I could see the nest, and a bird on it, but the snow was blinding us from seeing anything clearly. We could hear the sandhill cranes, and I promised him we'd find them before the day was over. I figured they would be easier to see in the snow. I was wrong.
We moved to nest 3 and the blinding snow covered the nest. I took a few shots, but mostly, they look like static on a television set. I couldn't see nest 4 at all, so I had him follow my truck to the end of my shooting project area. When we reached that I heard those cranes louder than ever. I asked him to follow me up a little further, and then I saw them, three crane in a cornfield, two of them fighting over the smaller crane which I could only guess was a female.
We both filmed the sandhill cranes flying and fighting, vocalizing and then I looked up and saw three eaglets. They were sparring, dropping down on one another at speeds that would make you wonder how it was even possible to pull out of, they were truly as talented as our Blue Angels.
As we backtracked I stopped and we did see the eagle on nest 4 now as the snow had lightened up in just that short half hour. The mate was sitting in that petrified tree he likes, on his branch, watching his mate. We didn't see much for migrating eagles, just the three eaglets, and there was one other eagle that I thought was a nest 3 eagle, but when I looked at my shots tonight I realized it was not any of our valley eagles. This eagle had a lot of dark edges on his tail, and some across his face. Probably a five year old eagle.
Then we found a flock of robins some were perched on the trees near us, others were eating dried grapes, and the rest were on the snowy ground, drinking and bathing, flitting in and out of the ditch water.
When we reached nest 2, I looked up and saw The Mayor, the male eagle, flying in from a half mile away. We watched him fly down and perch on the snow covered branch, just as Judy lifted her head. This was day 28 incubation for them and I know they must be anticipating the birth of their firstborn eaglet(s).
He let out his vocalizations, then settled watching over her, and watching Cy and me. After about ten minutes he flew off to the west and I photographed him flying through the increasing snow.
Last stop was Daedee and Dancer's nest 1. I hoped that we would see them today. We had reserved the last hours of our day for them. As we hiked out the snow flakes increased in size and blanketed the ground, the trees, the plants, and us. I took Cy to the Wildlife Study, but we couldn't see any eagles.
I expected Dancer to come in, but he never did. We hiked to the river and it has doubled in width and depth in just a couple days. We couldn't see the eagle on the nest, and that eagle was likely Daedee. She always seems to take the nest through the storms.
We hiked to the north side of the nest, but we didn't see them on that side either. We both got lots of shots of the snow falling
on the nest, which was beautiful but it would have been more lovely had the eagle popped up.
On the hike out I stopped one more time from my west side, gully post, where sometimes, I can see between the thick trunks the eagle head. All I saw was four inches of snow. So we hiked out and parted, planning our continuation of the nest next month sometime once the eaglet(s) hatch.
Usually I see more wildlife on these snowy days, and I shot about 500 pictures today, a lot of them blurry from the snow dropping on my lens, or trying to manually focus on a fast-moving subject, but it wasn't until I started editing the pictures tonight that I realized how lucky we were to find what we did.
The best part of the day was looking down at my notebook, seeing all the notes I had made, things to check back on, and the sentiments from Dave and Em with a heart and "We love you, have a good day."
Then I drove up a mile from my project area and my truck hit exactly 200,000 miles. I thought that signified a well-oiled truck and new beginnings ahead. I really appreciated Cy taking the time to spend in the field with me today, and to share the story of the eagles of this valley, a place I swear God planned long before a stick was laid.
Thank you Ron Schara, and thank you Cy Dodson for a great day in the field and a chance to share these eagles' stories with you and your viewers. God Bless.
I'm looking forward to day 74.
See you on the journey--
Lisa
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