Hello Eagle Friends,
The weatherman was right with his snowy prediction for today. The temperatures dropped quickly last night forcing us to turn up our dial on the thermostat. Today it was only 36 degrees but with those strong bitter winds it felt like -20 January day.
Em wanted to go exploring out with me today. We picked a place and forged our own trail. She has an incredible sense of direction, and that is a wonderful gift to have. We were trying to find morel mushrooms, which I realize aren't due out for another week, but with everything else coming up early I figured we had a sporting chance.
Instead we found numerous bloodroot found in the ravine and woods. These flowers are a week early, so I was even more
convinced we would find some morels.
Then we hiked out to Daedee and Dancer's nest and spent a couple hours with them. Daedee was on the nest when we arrived.
The winds blew her feathers backwards over her head. She changed directions on the nest as often as the winds shifted.
Suddenly, she flew to the look out tree and called out a rising pitch as an osprey dropped, literally, hundreds of feet down and into their nest area. The bird moved on without incident.
Then Dancer came in just as we were hiking out, and he had a fish in his talons. So I unpacked and we stayed. Em kept saying, "Who is that other bird above mom?" I didn't take any time to look as I was trying to get a good shot of Dancer coming in.
After he landed on the nest, Daedee called out, and her eyes were on that bird above too. "Mom, what bird is that?" Em asked again. I looked up and saw that it was quite possibly Ditto, their 2005 eaglet. The coloration was right for a 3 year old eagle,
the feet bright yellow which Ditto had, the tail was the right size and folds, and his beak was shaped like Dittos.
Tomorrow is Ditto's 3rd birthday.
I can tell you the eagle was not David Roger Kraig, Damian-Danielle, Dorothy, or Donny Paul. Whoever that immature eagle was it had some relationship with Daedee and Dancer, and that only leaves our Ditto. He flew off and circled the south bluffs
and Daedee flew off and went to the exact area, searching up and down those bluffs, and I lost her in the distance about where
I lost my view of who I believe was Ditto.
We moved on to nest 2 and found an exhausted Judy on her nest who lifted her head for only a moment as she repositioned to protect Terry Gail against the strong winds.
Nest 6 Linda was up on the nest feeding their eaglet. The wood duck drake was by his driftwood watching me photograph him.
He is not as flighty as his female. The marsh 6 great blue heron was in his favorite fishing spot feeding on the numerous fish and green frog and bull frog tadpoles.
About a dozen white pelican were feasting on what bluegills remained after the last flock and otters cleaned out the ponds.
Nest 5 was above their nest again on the perch.
Nest 3 and 4 eagles were on their nests.
No goslings on any of the nest boxes, or goose mounds, but they will all be hatching this next week if not by Monday.
It was a fantastic day in the valley.
I'm looking forward to day 110.
See you on the journey--
Lisa
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