Day 136, Friday, 5/23/08, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles

Hello Eagle Friends,

Today was one of the best all week! It was sunny and 72 degrees when we reached the valley this afternoon.

It was honor to present an eagle program on my eagle exhibit for a Rochester school today at The National Eagle Center this morning and afternoon. I had a very important request for the children. I told them the story about nest 3.

Edward and Elaina had lost their nest, it collapsed, and their eaglet, Tookie died.
That was 2005. I told them they parents had rebuilt their nest, in a stronger, bigger tree and this was the first eaglet(s) they have had since 2005.

I told the kids I needed them to think carefully about a name that would represent loss, a long wait, and then the blessing of a new eaglet, possibly eaglets.
They discussed amongst their tables and finally came up with a name so perfect I wish I had thought of it. I trusted the Lord was working mysteriously behind-these-scenes when they gave me their answer, hardly with a pause.

I don't know if any name could ring louder or clearer than the innocence, and "out of the mouths of babes" decision to call the eaglet "Victory" and if there are two Victory & Bell or if only a solo eaglet rules that nest his name shall be Victory Bell."

I was hardly the highlight of this day. Bob Richardson gave a wonderful presentation on his flag collection and the history behind the flags. He is a wonderful educator and if you get a chance to visit The National Eagle Center, stop by and say hello to Bob. Tell him Lisa said he'd have a story for them. Ask him, "Why Minnesota is called the gopher state."

He'll be there watching over his flags, sharing his tales, and if you ask him, he'll probably even share with you the age of some of his flags far exceeding his 76 years of life.

Downstairs the children were given an opportunity to view, up close a live eagle feeding experience. Scott gave a wonderful presentation on the eagles lives, the history of their comeback and taught the children about how they live, what they eat, how they digest their food and then showed the children how they eat by bringing in Columbia, who picked through her northern pike and redhorse fish.

"Yesterday was Chickens and chicks. Sunday is rat day."
I couldn't resist, "What's on the menu tonight?"

We had a wonderful day and I personally want to thank the volunteers and staff and The National Eagle Center for providing an exceptional experience to visitors of all ages.

Em and me went out to do my eagle project and we found most of the nesting eagles and eaglets enjoying some solitude during the late afternoon.

I was hoping to see Victory or Bell, or Victory Bell, but I guess that wasn't in the cards for today. I stopped and had Em running through the dandelions and blowing a million wishes a second into the sky.

Nest 5 eaglets must have been sleeping so I got nest shots. The blackbirds appeared to recognize me and flew up and watched me photograph the controlled burn. Today was day 40 and of course everything has been green and flowering for over 25 days, but it's interesting to me to document a day by experience of a piece of land. I became hooked on that doing my 580 day documentary.

While in the area I checked the documentary red-winged blackbird nest and they have drawn their limit of mouths to feed at the usual 3 egg nest.

As we moved on to nest 6 we passed a pair of Canada geese both sitting so still on a submerged stump it was like looking at a framed print. Of course, now that scene--will become that framed print.

Nest 6 Linda, the female eagle was sitting by her nest. I didn't see their eaglets, Freedom and Soar get up the entire time were there so we moved on.

We were skunked at nest 2 as well. Not even a glimpse of an adult. The Marsh 1a and 1b families were no where in sight, I didn't see any gosling today. That was very strange.

There were turtles sunning on nearly every log, but just pull over and try and photograph one of those before they jump in the water. Try it. You may be surprised to learn how fast a turtle really moves.

We hiked out to nest 1 and found Dancer sitting on The Look Out tree perch. Little soft chirps told me he was aware we were there. The twins were up. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. In fact, unless I had been there and photographed it with camera I may not have believed any one.

There right before our eyes was two eaglets, Daniels Charlie to the left and D'ODEE Brian Michael to the right. Both staring back and Em and me. I immediately began to film them and turned the video over to Em. I shot their images, one after another before D'ODEE turned and gave me a profile shot of his mohawk.

His feathers were standing straight up and down running from the tip of his head to the base of his neck. The reason this so special to me is it was two years ago I had that same experience with the 2006 twins.

I arrived, asking myself how on earth was I going to distinguish which twin was which?
That day, back in 2006, I looked through my tank lens and saw David Roger Kraig wedged next to Donny Paul, the older twin staring back at me with his mohawk made of feathers, just like D'ODEE.

I have already discovered the slight difference in the width of their beaks and was using that as my guide, not that I won't mix them up once in a while, but with 98% accuracy I can name those eaglets off their beaks, their eyes, their faces and their personalities.

I wonder how long D'ODEE will have his new look. This is a perfect example of why I go out each day. Every single day, there is something new. He didn't have those feathers sticking up yesterday.

The twins ducked back down in the nest. Dancer flew through the area and perched on the river somewhere and that's when I noticed the robin again.

He was sitting there the other day so I walked over and found they had four little babies, I would guess 3 days old at the most, curled up together head over back in the softball sized nest. Oddly, they built this nest only two feet off the ground, and used grasss, but no mud. If they did use mud it was so minimal that Mr. Clean would be out of business.

I have never seen a robin nest built like this. Em wanted to name them so the father had been named Donald. The mother a lighter shade of dad, is Gloria. The robin babies, are: Todd, Mischief, Bailey, Gin Jen.

Then we made up a silly riddle and song about Gin Jen. Em seems to like these silly songs. We have about four or five now we sing and keep adding verses as we go along.

Suddenly we heard, "Terry. Terry. Terry" and Em said, "Mom, Martha is calling you."
Martha is our catbird that has faithfully returned with the warblers, the robins, and the orioles along with the eagles each spring. Martha has become quite a wild bird friend over the years, coming up by us when we arrive waiting for her peanut butter bread treat.

Martha and her mate were sitting behind us and Em named him, "Teeco."

Today was a day I am so thankful for. A day full of unexpected blessings.

I'm looking forward to day 137.

See you on the journey.