Hello Eagle Friends,
It was a gorgeous mid-seventies degree day in the valley. The sun was out, the skies were full of the pink clouds, and it looked like a scene out of The Cat in the Hat by sunset.
Em came with and I'm so glad she did. We found so many creatures out and about, that and I taught her how to bring a hover bee in to land on your finger. After a few tries she could bring them right to her and the giggles were worth the entire trip.
While 8 week old Daniels Charlie was preening and D'ODEE was just starting to peak up from the basement of the nest, both twins went into a long call which meant food was coming in via mom or dad. Both tripped over each other to gain the best foothold of the food, once it came in.
Dancer brought in what looked like a turtle, but the light was low, and I had to pan to get any shot, it could have been something else, too. The twins both dove onto their father trying to get control of the food, and pushed him right off the nest and onto the west limb. He looked at Em and me and then he left the nest tree to watch over the kids from the Look Out tree.
D'ODEE had the food, but Daniels Charlie was able to pull it away from him, so D'ODEE came back up out of the nest and his expression to me looked like a face of defeat.
We left and moved on to nest 2 where we found 9 week old Terry Gail calling out for her dinner too.
At nest 6 Linda or Dick was perched by the nest and their 6 week old twins, Freedom and Soar were stirring about on the nest.
The sun was just setting behind the bluffs when we drove to nest 5. I stopped to photograph a doe who was feeding on the edge of the road, but another doe blew my cover by snorting out a warning call that sent the first doe leaping into the grasses.
At nest 5 I could see the twins but no parents were around that I could find. Em and me looked for caterpillars and found a few. She sure enjoys watching nature and how it changes into new life forms. There is no better season than caterpillar season.
She takes good care of them and pampers them like mini poodles. Good thing they haven't invented ways to dye your caterpillars in pastel hues, but maybe that will be a thing of the future.
We found the county line goslings, all six goslings have made it another week. They were trailing off into the depths of the marsh and led my eyes to a nest 5 eagle who had been sitting there all along. He was being bombarded by a male red-winged blackbird and every time the bird hit him the eagle would cry out. I wonder why the male red-winged blackbirds relentlessly
take after the male eagles? They go after the eaglets and females, too, but with a different tolerance.
An immature eagle flew over me and disappeared into the last seconds of the sunset.
At nest 3, Victory Bell was up and flapping across his nest. Nest 4 eagles were out of sight. The color of the sky was so
gorgeous that I shot it over and over, for every few minutes it was like an entirely new canvas. As I was shooting another scene
Em called out, "Mom, mom, look at it!"
I turned around so fast I thought a bear or coyote was coming in. Instead, I watched her pointing to the sunset and continuing, "Mom, isn't that just so beautiful?"
"Yes, I think God painted that one just for you tonight."
As we drove back I stopped several times to pick up tree frogs and American toads out of the road. Most of the toads were locked on a female and the vehicles were running them over by the dozen. Big mounds of mushed toads where the two never had a chance to get out of the way.
It was one of the best days we have had in the valley.
I'm looking forward to day 154.
See you on the journey--
Lisa
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