Hello Eagle Friends,
I just finished my daily beat a couple hours ago, had a quick bite for dinner, and I'm still working on photos.
Today I filled almost 4 gigabytes of eagle and marsh life images. I was never short for subjects considering the
weather blew me in new directions the entire day.
It was low 60's when I arrived early afternoon and mostly sunny. Then as the winds blew the clouds became thick;
dressed serriptiouly like June tiger lilies and May crab apple blossoms. It had become obviously clear that a storm was now inevitable.
On my way to the eagle nests I found my red fox friend crouching in the grasses. He sauntered up the bluff and watched me from about a hundred yards through the thick of the woods. The shot I posted is my favorite of the dozen or so I took.
I decided to cover nests 2-8 first, and save Daedee and Dancer's nest for last. I didn't want to feel hurried to complete their nest with a huge storm coming in. I wanted to be there at their nest when the storm hit. I keep hoping I'll be there for a rainbow, but in four years it hasn't happened yet.
I found no activity on nest 7 and somehow, maybe it was the way the sun lit the bluff, but I found nest 8 again today. There was no activity on it.
I moved on to nest 2 and found nothing 41 day old Terry Gail waiting for food.
The goose families on the first marsh were deep in the reeds so I didn't see them today.
When I reached nest 6 I found Linda right away sitting backlit from the sun that broke out of the clouds for only a few minutes.
The twins must have been asleep on the nest for I didn't see them at all. My attention was on the goose mound 3 goose. My heart just goes out to her. She's been sitting for 35 or 36 days, and still has no goslings.
She got up three times and checked them and pulled her down and grasses close up to her sides. Maybe she hears one peeping in the eggs. Maybe I had the timing all wrong. Maybe she's been sitting, but maybe she didn't lay for a week after she began sitting. Maybe tomorrow I'll arrive and she'll be gone with a view of crumpled ivory egg shells left for proof of the long wait.
The goose families were all on the north side of the marsh letting their little ones nibble on the long green blades of grasses.
There are four or families there all with 6-7 goslings, and nest box 5 has their little one up by the dandelions. I love this shot of the mother goose above tripping over her gosling, who at one time or another during the day always seem to be, always underfoot.
My luck ran out at nest 5. The rain came down, not too heavily, just a shirt soaker rain. I could see the twins up on the nest, but I can't see if mom is up on her perch above them anymore. The red-winged blackbirds were courting, and I would guess we'll have eggs in that new nest by Wednesday.
I moved on to nest 3 and 4. I found the goose family with the solo gosling. Mom's wing feather still bent at a 90 degree angle straight up. Two eagles were in the air. One was a nest 4 eagle and I only know that because that's where he flew back after soaring and hunting around nest 3's nest.
I parked and felt like walking to the back of the marsh. Like there would be something there I needed to find, like some puzzle piece for today's tapestry of surprise visitors and unexpected blessings.
I hiked around to the back and stopped. I asked in prayer, "You wanted me to hike all the way back here and for what? All I see is a dandelion that has gone to seed."
Sometimes there is a silence that surpasses any logical thought at all and I realized in my questioning I had my found my answer to be that exact subject. One dandelion that had gone to seed. So I bent down and photographed that dandelion that had gone to seed. I was photographing that when I felt the Lord whisper to me that some flowers need not bloom to go to seed. I wasn't sure why I was intrigued with taking pictures of it, not until I looked to my right and noticed another dandelion with white tufts busting from the side, but the rest of the flower was never going to open.
I found a lot of wisdom in that example. Sometimes I feel like that dandelion; always busting at the seam, but never really blooming. As I walked back to my truck I noticed how the ground was dried and cracked, and up from the cracks were dandelions growing and flowering. I felt the words put in my heart, "A weed will always bloom up if given even a crack."
Then I noticed out of the hundreds of dandelions growing from cracks that I could have stopped at, I didn't, I had felt the one I photographed was the "one."
I smiled as I leaned down to pick up the dried exoskeleton of a dragonfly nymph. I immediately thought of my story, Year 2000: The Year of The Dragonfly. I thought about what I wrote in that story. I thought about how the dragonfly in the end had to fly on one set of wings. I knew that I knew, that from today forward, I was no longer like that dragonfly, living as a bottom-feeder in the scum of life; but in that moment I knew it was time for me to fly, too shedding off the old skin for the new.
As I headed back to nest 1, I stopped to take some shots of Judy feeding 41 day old Terry Gail. As I shot her images something happened I least expected. I knew the eaglet reached another milestone as I photographed her standing all the way up on her legs for the first time, eyeball to eyeball to her mom.
The eaglets walk around hunched until they reach 5-6 weeks of age. Then one day, like today, they are raised up. I guess I'll say it like this, "As one was lifted, two were raised."
Then I saw him, the red tailed hawk perched above the tree that I said looked like an eagle made of wood. Somewhere back in my blog is the book cover, "The Spirt Trees of Whitewater" and there is an immature eagle sitting in that eagle-shaped tree.
I couldn't help but notice however, now with the red-tailed hawk perched above how much it looked like a red-tailed hawk
complete with a white-washed underside to match the coloration of the hawk above.
The two birds I will leave this earth flying me to Heaven are the eagle and the red-tailed hawk. My two spirit birds. So know you know why this book will have the eagle on the front and the hawk on the back.
As I hiked out to Daedee and Dancer's nest evening was fast approaching, and the skies were settled and blue again. Daedee was sitting contently on the nest facing the sun going down. The twins made a quick appearance, bit at each others beaks and ducked back down in the nest.
I waited for over an hour for the twins to lift again, but even then it was just a quick peak out and they dropped back into the nest. Dancer came flying in calling an alert call. I wasn't sure what he had seen or why the drama. Then he flew off to the north.
Suddenly, the winds began to howl. I thought at first it was a loud airplane that would come over the bluff any second. I was wrong. The skies turned to charcoal gray and were marbled with black and the winds blew furiously bending the 3 foot grasses back to their roots.
The winds blew bending the nest tree over and I literally felt I was there to pray for that tree and those eagles. I saw the panic in Daedee's eyes as she leaned forward over D'ODEE Brian Michael who decided to take a moment and exercise his wings in the wind. I think Daedee and I were both thinking the same thing as that silly 4 week old, almost 5 weeks old, lifted up and almost blew out of the nest.
Moral of that story is: Unless you are feathered don't put your sail to the wind.
Daedee forced herself over on her anxious-to-fly eaglet. He mimics his dad by throwing his head back and opening his beak, but still the sound doesn't come out like his parents. He is not ready to fly like his dad yet either.
I was convinced that Dancer came in to tell Daedee of the storm.
The winds whipped around me and I didn't want to watch all my gear blow off like it did last year in the 50-60mph winds.
So I stuffed all my gear into my black bag and nestled it into the plants under the log where I was sitting. I was down to only a few minutes of tape and I used that up quickly as the winds blew out the microphone and the nest tree tilted to the right.
The Twin tree tipped even more in the wind, and one more good storm and it'll be laying across the river. The Twin tree didn't matter right now. I had enough to think on watching Daedee trying to keep her eaglets in the nest as the tree blew back and forth. The buds of the cottonwood tree pelted me in the eyes for staring and I kept looking for a tornado to drop with the howls of these winds I was sure that would be next.
Then the rain fell hard but the shower only lasted a few minutes. Then a perfect calm. I walked all around to all my eagle posts shooting pictures of the mysterious looking clouds that followed me from post to post. I decided to shoot pictures of all the eagles perching trees, before we loose anymore, and I thought I could sell those photos as a way to fund the project.
I stayed until dusk waiting for the sun to hit the trees with just a bit of golden light. Dancer spoke to the winds and calmed them. I have heard that unless you know peace inside; you can't speak to the winds and expect them to listen. I had just never seen an eagle speak to the winds and calm them before.
As I hiked out the darkness of evening filled in my steps and a barred owl called out, "who, who, who, wha."
I'm looking forward to day 131.
See you on the journey.
Lisa
Remember KTTC is airing this eagle journey on 5/19/08 10PM news.
*Also, I want to welcome our new Lisa's Walk The Talk Show affiliate station, KOHI Columbia County, Oregon! Lisa's Walk The Talk Show will be broadcast on KOHI M-F, 3-4 PM.
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