Eagles

Mike and I portage to the big lake. It is early evening, very calm and overcast. We haven't paddled together, but once I get his cadence up to a normal pace it all flows nicely. We spot an eagle perched in a tree just before we get to Union Bay. I haven't seen an eagle there ever before. Things are different with a second pair of eagles in the bay. The eagle habits that I learned last winter don't apply. I tell Mike that we probably won't see the eagles hunting, they usually eat in mid-day. And then, we see one of the eagles, hunting. I spot the north nest pair sitting together on the largest dirtberg, so the hunting eagle is from the south nest. It seems less experienced, definitely less experienced. It circles on a coot, gives up, takes after a duck in flight, gives up, circles on another coot, then another. It's haphazard compared to the north nest eagles. When the north nesters hunt they circle on a coot. If it escapes or the eagle tires, the eagle retreats to a perch and lets the coots all calm down and regroup. The north nest eagles are very methodical, very deliberate. This south nest eagle just wears itself out. Down in the south lagoon, we spot a beaver swimming and just to make sure we close in and it slaps its tail. It then backs off to the small and hard-to-see lodge than most people don't know exists.