In one of my many fantasy lives, I am a naturalist, tromping through the woods, sketching owls, eagles, hawks, and small creatures in the woods. I'm out collecting owl pellets, tagging birds, following tracks you name it. Today, was one such day, despite my limited "institutional" experience as a naturalist.... I think we did quite well on our pursuit... Yesterday, JP and I discovered what we thought was the Bald Eagle nest along the Whitewater River. For seasons now, we have sprung early in the morning to be out watching the eagles fish the river for breakfast, but we have NEVER found their nest. We tromped through the trees along their fishing nook, looking for nests, feathers, to no avail but yesterday.... of course, being the enthusiastic naturalists that we are, we happened to be on the opposite side of the river from the nest, prohibiting us from getting a great close look at it, check for evidence of little eaglets etc. With our snow boots on and a prayer, we parked the truck off the side of the road, hoping the tires wouldn't stick in the mud while we contemplated our options:
"Well we could dig out the kayaks from the basement."
"Yeah!"
"But I don't know, the current is pretty fast."
"Yeah but I can swim really well. The worst that would happen is I'd get hypothermia pretty bad."
"And your mother would shoot me."
"Isn't there any place that is on the opposite side from here? A bridge? Anywhere?"
"The landfill?"
And so it was decided.
After hiking over the landfill and through the woods, through brambles like Sleeping Beauty's protected castle, we made it to the eagle tree... well worth the hike as we watched the papa eagle soar by us on the river.
