Hello Eagle Friends,
It was a wonderful afternoon and evening in the valley. We had wind advisories until 6 PM, and temperatures in the mid 70s again today. The thunderstorms are supposed to increase over the weekend and I thought the storm was moving in early tonight as I watched the dark clouds rolling across the sky while sitting at my nest 1 post.
Daniels Charlie was not practicing his flight jumps, but rather he focused on preening every feather on his wings, back and tail.
D'ODEE Brian Michael only stretched out his wings twice, hardly moving from his cozy and shady spot behind the west limb.
Daedee came circling in around 18:30, and the eaglets were looking at her talons dropping as quickly as I was, they wanted food, I wanted the shot of her lugging in a huge fish. Instead, the screams of the eaglets increased as she neared the nest, and landed on a branch at the top of the tree.
Daedee looked down into her nest and swayed back and forth on the branch while Daniels Charlie continued to cry out. He kept looking for ways to reach her. She continued to chirp soft little notes out to her kids which I believe is the same chirps she'll use to coax them out onto the limbs. She is the best mother eagle, always patient with her eaglets and I know she'll graduate these two eaglets in the next few weeks from nest and eaglets to the skies wearing newly-fledged eagles.
As I waited for Dancer to come in to do a feeding, a hover bee flew over by me dancing on the air between the blades of grass and hovering, something they do best, and then it landed on the grass blade.
Dale my German shepherd was with me. The grass is 4 to 5 tall now and I let him run ahead as we hike out to the nests and he will go about ten feet before he senses or hears no one following and he backtracks making sure I am with him.
On my hike out I somehow got caught on a branch and tumbled over a stump, stood up and tripped on another. I crashed my head into my tripod, which is not a new experience and I have the scars to prove that, but this time I went face down smashing into the nettles and then the stump. I sat up in a daze for a moment with a face that felt like it had been shot up with Novocain knowing how lucky I was not to have knocked myself out. I felt my forehead and ran my fingers over the new rise on it. I had a good lump on my head, but I have a tough head.
I looked down at the ground and I had not even noticed in all the commotion that Dale was pressed up me staring into my eyes with his ears up. Good old Dale was right there, had been all along, guarding me and making sure I was okay. I patted his head and said, "I'm okay. Thanks good boy." He gave me a look that was so precious that I had to thank God for having him there tonight.
61 day old Terry Gail was up on her nest when we stopped there. Just in the last week she has had so many light feathers come in on her chest that she doesn't even look like the same eaglet.
All the other nests were quiet today. I sat roadside watching four Canada geese guarding their gosling's in the tall grasses, eating right to that last ray of light. There were more in the shallow area of a back marsh. I was too far away for a good shot in the low light, but I sure enjoyed watching the straggler running to catch up with his family. His little wings flapping up and down opposite of his big webbed feet slapping up the water.
I hung around for awhile though and watched the deer grazing in the fields, two of them with a
raccoon the size of bobcat. Seriously, this raccoon could have a career as one of those animal models. He had a lot of personality and it was so interesting to watch him skirting around the deer.
I'm looking forward to day 151.
See you on the journey--
Lisa
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