Day 161, Tuesday, 6/17/08, Year Four Dancer & Daedee: Snow Falling on Eagles

Hello Eagle Friends,

Today it was a perfect last Tuesday of Spring. The temperatures were in the high seventies, and the skies a harmonious shade of powder blue. The winds were just enough to cause a reaction in the eaglets, too, the June winds that prompt the pledges for fledging.

I found no activity on nest 7.

The twins, Daniels and DODEE were both sitting on the north side of the nest when I arrived. The grasses are almost 8 feet tall
maybe even taller, and they have gone to seed so it's nearly impossible to hike out without getting your eyes filled full of grass chaff.

I waited through several attempts of their flying acrobatic routines to hopefully capture the evening dinner being served up.
Finally, Dancer did bring in some food, a "bloater". I call them bloaters because they are are dead fish, bloated up and full of water. I'm sure this is how the eagles give water to their eaglets during the long wait until they can fly to the river and drink for themselves.

Dancer flew off the nest as promptly as he landed and joined Daedee on the Look Out Tree perch. Together the parents sat watching their eaglets growing up. Every so often Daedee would let out a loud, "Caaaaa" her words to share, if I am understanding them right.

Whatever she had instructed them in that call, was met with Daniels lifting the fish, and swallowing in it one long 8 inch gulp of a bloated fish, scales, tails and all.

Poor D'ODEE sat there with the most horrible expression on his face, and it was like watching two kids fighting over the last of a bottle of pop on a scorching hot day, and swallowing it down to the last drop.

Dancer and Daedee looked at one another, and D'ODEE looked to them as if to inquire in that stare if there would be a second chance at dinner tonight?

I hiked out and moved on to find Terry Gail sitting up on her nest. She was content there. I think she saw her parents in the area because she was crying out and leaning over the edge of the nest making me wonder if she wanted to follow them.

As I moved on I found a doe in the road waiting until I was only 100 feet away before leaping into the tall grasses.

At nest 6 all I found was the nest. The eaglets were hidden from my view so I moved on to nest 5.

There I found the chorus of bull frogs in the marsh to be a welcome presence for this night. The twins were on the nest batting their wings in each other's faces.

At nest 3, I found Victory Bell facing out watching the sunset, and for a moment, I thought there were two eaglets. It turned out to be just a part of the tree trunk that narrowed and really did look like a silhouette of an eaglet.

I drove down to the last marsh and I thought I'd get a few shots of the fish jumping again but little did I know there was another surprise waiting for me there.

As I walked down the steep embankment, holding a video camera in one hand, and my still camera in the other, I was focused on the swirling of the water and the whirlpool it formed, and not what was underfoot.

I stepped down on a rock and noticed a garter snake slither out, so I put my hand down by the rock and suddenly I had four other baby snakes slither across it. They remained, just sitting there watching me. At first glance, I thought they were massasauga rattlesnakes. The habitat was right, the swampy river bank is were they make their homes and I don't even know how many thoughts raced through my head in that ten seconds where time froze, but you can bet that I didn't move -- rattlesnake or not.

They were cute little critters, but their curiosity had engulfed mine. I have never seen snakes coming back and checking out the surroundings, or sitting there waiting for me to move. Of course, I haven't been near a snake den in a long time. I think I had just stepped on a major rock that must have formed the den, and the flood from last week must have caved it in? Maybe my step opened their trapdoor?

Maybe their entrance had been filled in with sand and silt and my arrival, gave them their departure. I guess I have never watched snakes spilling from a rock before and there is no other way to describe that scene. I managed to grab and turn on my video camera with my free hand, the one that was not being 'watched' by at least four sets of snake eyes, literally.

I shot a ten second clip of them for later identification. The problem is, I can't identify them. They don't look like anything we have here. I don't think they were rattler's. I think they could have been water moccasins. They just didn't have the heads of any other snake, not even the northern water snake which is harmless, but will bite if provoked--like most snakes.

So it remains a mystery. I'm going to go back and check out that spot again during a time of day where there is some light and I can see just how many snakes may be denned up there.

I only had a few frames left so I shot the rising of the full moon over the marshes which was bright orange, huge in the sky and the perfect ending for this day.

Of course, that's when a mother raccoon stepped into view and then her little babies. They all stood up watching me and they made that coon "trill" that you hear in just every movie with a 'coon in it.' I pulled over to watch the mom, but she back-tracked and came up hissing and growling at me. Thank God for auto-windows, because there was one second I was just sure she was going to come flailing at me through my open window.

I gave her a good thirty feet when I pulled over. I didn't even expect to see her again, well, I guess I didn't, but I sure heard her and I wonder if that is the noise I had been hearing out at the eagle nest.

I didn't get home until almost 11 PM. My husband asked, "What's the rule?"
"I know. I know. Don't worry unless I'm not here an hour past sundown. But, I had a little snake incident, followed by a raccoon."

I'm looking forward to day 162.

See you on the journey--

Lisa