In the sunshine of life, the colors of the world....Autumn

Travel over Buffalo Pass in Steamboat, and found the colors radiant.  Something about the curves of dirt roads call me, take one more curve, still one more, stop and relish standing in quaking Aspen, seek creatures on hillside appearing and disappearing before your eyes, and then let's take one more mile down the road.

...I see
the turning of a leaf
dancing in an autumn sun
and brilliant shades of crimson
glowing when a day is done...

Hazelmarie "Mattie" Elliott, "A Breath of Heaven"

In the presence of the King of the Cottonwoods

I have not forgotten the first sight of an eagle in Colorado.  In the late 1980's, going north on county road to Longmont.  I said "there is a big bird" to my mom, who said "that is an eagle".   An eagle?  In Colorado?  Ever since that day my eyes have looked upward daily.

Having been a follower of the Xcel eagle cam for five years now I have see their stories.  Of eggs being laid, birds buried in snow and protecting the future of their line, of the nests of babies frozen due to spring storms that swept the parents out of the area of their nest, of pips making small cracks and the labor of emerging from eggshells, of fuzzy gray heads bobbling to and fro seeking a morsel of fish, of sibling rivalry and runts struggling to gain a foothold in the nest bowl of food competition, it has been an amazing window of the lives of eagles.

Two years ago a nest crashed to the ground in a wind storm with three eaglets, all perished.  Yet that same nest survived a tornado in Windsor not but a few miles away, in previous years.

I have found five nests this last five years.  I shan't reveal their places unless I know you, as many will infringe upon this space too closely and stress the parents to possibly abandon the nests.

This lovey guy flew right over us and landed in tree above us, was not at all worried about us, but all the prairie dogs in the meadow stopped chirping away and stood up on hind legs and stared at this bird, frozen in time.  It was quite funny.  Unless you were a prairie dog. 

But at a distance I have found some wonderful backgrounds to our eagles in Colorado, if I am willing to rise early or drive some distance.

This is a nest before eggs laid when the parents were often on the love branch.

This is a close up of the same nest, taken at dawn.  I was very pleased at the sunrise on Longs Peak area to back light this scene.

In mid-March I found an eagle "rookery" you might say.  We counted at the end of the evening, thank you daylight savings time, 22 eagles in a pond,  Many were juveniles, maybe 10 adults.  Take a look, at a distance, and adult and one juvenile and one other older maturing bird on the far right.   This was just the start of the evening.

They filled a tree with so many birds that we were just grinning ear to ear.  The parents flew with young birds, most likely last years or more offspring.  One white head stayed in the nearby nest, I am sure full of envy at the soaring, but dedication to the end that her eggs stay warm.

As we watched the sun sink and looked for a comet in the west, many birds flew away from us, seeking less company and I caught this shot of them on the wing.  What a lovely day it was in Colorado.

And then there is that wonderful time when you just are at the right spot at the right time, and a Northern Harrier Hawk flies by you as you are in the grasses...

These lovely cottonwoods will be soon green with leaves, and the view from the grasses will hide the babies who will begin to fledge and only those who skim the lake will be seen come spring time.  But for the moment they are the thorns for the King of the Grasslands, sitting on the highest limb, overseeing and protecting precious lifelines of offspring and mates.   That simple cottonwood, aging and rough to the touch, is home for our eagles...

The rough barked Cottonwood, backdrop to our lives in Colorado....

FisherGirl

The Sun is around longer this week....

As I left my office this week I saw that at 6:00 there was light over the mountains!  I cannot tell you how happy that has made me.  January is somewhat of a trial for me!  Cold and dark.  Difficult for an outdoor girl.

My mother took a fall the week before Christmas.  She was not hurt, but it sent her to a hospital for four days, which took the wind out of her sails.   She had to have 24/7 care for about 10 days and so the three of us girls took time out to stay with her.  Staying in her place from a Friday night until Sunday nights, working all week to make up time so I could get her to a Dr appointment, had left me drained.   She is pretty much up and going well now, but no more driving, ever again for her.  But today is a Saturday, and the weather is now out of the single digits, and I have new Simms waders that have a step up from my summer waders, and leak proof as they are seamless, so I think a day to the high country is in order. 

I wonder what I will do when I am her age and we cannot drive any longer.  I am already asking (telling) my granddaughter "will you take me to see the elk when they bugle?"   "Will you take me to Sprague Lake in the summer?"   Will you make sure I do not have to live in the lowlands and never see the high country but once every year or less?   "will you make sure?..."

I will miss standing in waters waving a stick, someday.  So off into the world today, with my green stick and my new waders, and work the rust out of my body.

And I do not even recall Christmas and New Years...but my mom, she is doing OK.

FisherGirl