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Hello Eagle Friends,
Today was another wonderful day in the valley with lots of activity. The winds were strong but the air temperature was 37 degrees when I arrived with partly sunny skies.
I hiked out to nest 1 eagle post and found Daedee sitting on her nest, peering at me through the openings in their nest of sticks. I photographed some signs of spring, looked up and down the valley numerous times, but saw no activity.
However, the moment I turned to hike out, and eaglet flew in and tried to land on the nest by Daedee. Behind the eaglet was Dancer who flew in and landed on top of the tree. He looked down several times to see Daedee was okay, and then he looked off into the distance, watching the eaglet join the other eaglet in the sky.
I moved on to nest 2, but it was so terribly cool with the strong winds, I wouldn't have heard an eaglet cry if it had hatched. Judy was deep in the nest, but every so often she would peak up at me while sitting on her 31 day old egg(s).
I moved on to nest 6. There was so much activity going on I wish I had eight arms and six more cameras. The geese were fighting over territory and the ducks were flying to a from the small to large ponds because there were five immature eagles diving down on them.
Linda, the nest 6 eagle sat in her nest watching the entire scene, probably thankful these eaglets made no attempt to land with her on the nest. I'm pretty sure two of them were Damian and Dorothy, the nest 1 2007 twins. The beak markings, and underwing patterns matched.
The eaglets flew off, and that gave me an opportunity to shoot pictures of the four trumpeter swans who had arrived since yesterday. Three of them swam together and a fourth remained on the shore, preening and rubbing his face against his bright yellow
band, 68U, with matching leg band.
I wondered where this swan came from, maybe I'll find that answer yet this week.
Alongside the fourth swan were two sandhill cranes drinking from the pond.
I watched flock after flock of canvas backs, mallards, and Canada geese fly off and return to the ponds, after one of the immature eagles returned.
I moved to nest 5 and found the eagle on the nest for day 26 incubation. Maybe by next week we will be experiencing some warmer weather? I hope so, these eaglets will have a rough start if it doesn't warm up soon.
Nest 3 and nest 4 eagles were also on their nests. No cave cottontail rabbit today.
However, I took another road home and I found both a country rabbit, and city rabbit with their basket of snow eggs.
We met some friends from Pennsylvania for dinner, Dorothy and Terry. Dorothy is a famous watercolor artist, and her work is among the finest I have ever seen. They will be heading back to Alaska this summer, and I hope one day I will follow them there for a season.
I'm looking forward to day 77.
See you on the journey--
Lisa
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