Hunting

I put in on the big lake and paddle north with a steady south wind behind me, strong but not making too much of a wave. A large western grebe surfaces 50 yards to my right, close for a grebe, and it performs its graceful surface dive, lifting itself free of the water with its hind feet and arcing its body, neck and head into a streamlined curve, and disappearing head first with hardly a ripple. It is an occurrence worth noting.


While looking for animal tracks in the NE lagoon, the eagles fly over, both times while I have my head down and my camera put away. The lake is up 3 or 4 inches and the beaver highway is now awash. It starts to rain steady. It is a rain that would depress someone who is sitting inside looking out, but I am in it and I find it fresh and rejuvenating. The wind here is over the dead beaver that lies 50yards back in the brush and I can just pick up the scent. As I leave the lagoon, I spot one of the eagles stampeding coots in mid bay. It circles, swoops and hovers, hunting a singled out coot. This goes on for quite some time. It goes for at least 15 minutes. It should be about time to give up when the mate joins in on the hunt, and a half minute later the first eagle flies off with its quarry.

There are ten herons sitting together on the south tip of #1 island.