A New Approach

Yes, there really are fish in the Fish Pond and for a small treat they will gladly let you take their picture if your fast enough.

I got a couple of chances this week to check out my favorite eagle's nest. Both eaglets are still there and beginning to stretch there wings. Since getting good pictures of the nest from almost a mile away is to difficult and it's unwise to try to approach an active nest with very young birds in it I will have to wait and hope they make an appearance with mom at the Fish Pond so I can get a good image of them to share.

With the leaves now filling out the tree branches the eagle has been blessed with a new hunting advantage. While she used to circle over the pond and then land in a high perch to look for prey she can now silently appear from just over the tree tops and dive down suddenly on anything swimming on the surface. The up side to this adjustment to her hunting style is that she doesn't spend as much time checking things out before she appears.


Thursday's weather was a nice springtime drizzle and mist mix. She came in from directly over my spot and dropped down to just a few feet off the surface. Seeing nothing she could grab easily she glided to the far end of the pond, tipped her wings sharply left and flew back almost directly at me. Unfortunately the branches of the cedar tree I was sitting behind obscured any photo opportunity.

Making her way about three quarters of the way back across the pond she again turned left and with a few large wing beats rose to a perch that was about forty yards from my position.

After spending a couple of minutes shaking her damp feathers and looking down into the shallow spot in the pond below her she leaned forward, spread her wings and departed. As always the two minutes she was there allowing me to watch her was worth the hours of waiting until she arrived.

Once again it was some of the smallest things around the pond that were some of the most fasinating.

You could sit near the waters edge for an infinite number of afternoons and never notice the webs that fill the tree branches around you. When the light is just right however they appear almost magically.

The geese with the two goslings who were at the pond everyday last week have disappeared. Perhaps the eagles have forced them out onto a larger body of water or maybe they have just wandered to another nearby pond. No female ducks with ducklings yet. Maybe next week.

Hey, have a great day. Get outside and learn something new about the wonderful world around you.

Kevin