Day 178, Friday, 7/4/08, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles

Hello Eagle Friends,

Happy 4th of July! It was one of the best 4th of July's I remember. The weather was gorgeous, a perfect mid 70s day with blue skies almost all day. The evening was cooler, but even the biting insects were not as aggressive today.

Dave and Em came with me on my project today. I was hoping they'd get the opportunity to watch D'ODEE fledge. Instead when we arrived we found Charlie had come back to the nest tree and D'ODEE had no intentions of leaving.

We waited for a long time for any activity, but mostly all we saw was two eaglets sitting and hoping for a big, juicy fish to be brought in. Daniels watched us intently,
and as shot the picture above he was watching Em who was sharing her leaf collection with me.

As we moved on to nest 2 Dave spotted the evening fawn in the small slough by nest 2.
I pulled over expecting he trot off to his mom, but instead, he turned and looked at me with his lovely big eyes. Then he lowered himself, barely cowering above the water, creeping, slowly back into the tall grasses as a loud motorcycle drew near.

It was so loud the mom popped her head up and was watching as her little one darted through the ten foot grasses joining its mom. Then they both jumped off into the distance.

There was no activity on nest 2. No sounds or cries of an eaglet and I keep trusting that she is OK, and that all is well.

At nest 6, I could see both twins behind the trunk, but not enough to get any good shots of them.

I hoped and hoped for a fourth of July fledging on nest 5, and I shot all my controlled burn shots, day 83, and lifted my lens to the empty nest, and the empty limb, but then I saw them. Both eaglets still tethered to the upper limb sitting opposite of each other--waiting for the other to go first.

Maybe tomorrow they'll fledge.

I took some time and photographed Em in the wild tiger lilies and they were some of the most beautiful images of her that I've ever taken.

At nest 3, Victory Bell was sitting on the north side of his nest. Nest 4 had nothing visible to record.

On our drive back I noticed an eagle sitting up at the very tip of a tree. "I'll bet that is Dick, the nest 6 male." I told Dave and Em. I pulled over and shot a handful of pictures of this handsome eagle and as I did he noticed something flash off to my left at the same time I did.

So I shot his pictures leaving his perch, and I rather like this low-light, blurred shot of him in pursuit of independence.

We could see the fireworks all the way out in the country driving back in to town. We
barely made it to the river where hundreds of others had discovered our quiet spot this year.

I'm looking forward to day 179.

See you on the journey--

Lisa