Golden Morning and NIghtfall

Immature Golden Eagle

Aquila chrysaetos


Tree011510

Golden Eagle

Tree409

Another Golden Day

Tree

Today we hiked on the power line trail. I remembered my camera. On the return trip, our attention was drawn to an alarm cry of the bluejays, and sharp eyed Willow called out, "A Golden Eagle!"

And there it was, emerging just above the trees that held the protesting jays. Then the eagle headed away from us down the powerline. Cam in hand, and desperate, I gave out the alarm whistle. I only recently learned that the Golden whistle is an alarm call, but they have always responded to it in the past, and today I was not disappointed.

I squinted, cam in hand, and Willow told me the eagle was headed back. I started snapping pix-fourteen fair ones in all. The Golden circled and soared- finally directly over our heads. Satisfied I had the best pix I could get, I waved farewell and we headed on. Just a few minutes later the second Golden appeared and headed away, still on the hunt.

Willow had collected some feathers on the trail-most likely from a nice wild turkey snack for the Goldens. That makes the third time in a week we have spotted them-or I should say Willow has sounded the alert each time. We also saw them the day we went to the beach, but I was driving and it was a difficult spot to stop.

Maine Golden Eagles

Tree

Golden Eagle

Aquila Chrysaetos

Tree

One day I will get a clear picture of the goldens!

This was my best attempt today. I was driving up the small dirt road that leads to the farm where I buy my hay, and came across a power transmission line. I looked down the mountain and was disappointed that the foliage was not better-most likely oaks that will change in the next few weeks.

I thought about the golden eagles, and wondered if they hung out in that area. Then, a few hundred feet down the road, I saw a golden soaring at the edge of an upcoming clearing. I pulled up to the clearing and put my foot on the brake and scrambled for the cam. By the time I had it in my hand, the golden had vanished, and I thought I missed my opportunity. Then, suddenly, from ahead of me, another golden soared by headed after the first.

No time for the viewfinder; I snapped off three quick shots aiming in the direction of the retreating golden, and then it was gone. I started to check the pix, and all of a sudden, "bang! crunch! bonk!" and I jerked my head up to realize that I had taken my foot off the brake and was driving off the wrong side of the road. Well into the puckerbrush! I quickly recovered and drove out without incident, seeing all the rocks, stonewalls, ditches, stumps, and utility poles that I could have hit when I went off the road. Luck was on my side!

When I arrived at the farm, S was in the barn and I told him my story. He looked incredulous when I told him about goldens, but had a great story himself. The night before he was headed out to the barn and saw an enormous brown shape in the field quite close to the barn. He headed in that direction, and a bull moose shook his head and stood up! The moose had one antler.

Shortly afterwards he looked out the house window, and saw a retreating moose, and ran out to see if it was the same one. That one had two antlers. So either they had been fighting or the former had lost an antler stuck in a tree. S said the first one that was down was acting quite strange, so perhaps there had a been a bull moose battle right in his back yard!

I was a little edgier than usual taking Peko on his pitch-dark walk tonight. Walking down the drive I thought I could hear sticks snapping in the woods, and once we hit the road, it was so dark I couldn't even make out my Obama sign a few feet away. I could hear my feet scuffing on the dirt road, and the light jingle of Peko's dog tags. I keps straining my ears for a 900 pound moose walking down the road, and wondered if they made much noise on the dirt. Then I wondered which way I would run if one charged me. I am pretty sure I couldn't out run a bull moose. LOL. I have to stop this or I am going to manifest an encounter of the bull .... kind. ;)

Bush Administration does it again

That's right, using lawyers and back door rule changing, the Bush administration via attorneys for the department of the Interior and the Commerce Department are crafting rule proposals that gut the Endangered Species Act.

How so?

The rule changes allow Federally funded projects the ability to determine for themselves whether a project will threaten an endangered species. Currently, any projects have to go through a sometime lengthy scientific screening process that determines if a species will be threatened, via Fish and Wildlife and other departments.

Also included in these new rule changes, it will be forbidden to consider whether emissions from those projects will contribute greenhouse gases that may harm an endangered species. That little gem is in response to climate change, via Arctic sea ice loss, will eventually extinct the polar bear. Some environmental groups were planning on using the polar bear's newly established endangered status to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

The way this is going down, Congress will be exempted from the rule changes, and the rule changes will be in force before the November presidential election. Sure, The next administration can try and undo it, as may Congress, but both will take a long time. Another Bush example of "My way or the HIghway."

I will like to add that from personal experience Fish and Wildlife is pretty worthless, at least here in Maine. My attempts to get the Golden Eagles recognized went nowhere. I would have thought an eagle specialist would have been thrilled to verify the presence of an active nesting pair of rare birds. I later discovered that this same specialist was active in getting the bald eagle off the endangered species list. If Goldens were recognized in Maine, think of all the work that would mean.

Two more species have fallen the same fate here in Maine. The box turtle for one. I was proudly showiong my photos of the box turtle to a local school teacher, and she informed me that there had been box turtles in her area since she could remember. Yet on the Maine fish and Wildlife site, they list Box turtles as endangered but having no home range in Maine.

The last species is the Mountain Lion. For years folks had been reporting sightings all over Maine, yet Fish and Wildlife refused to confirm it. Finally faced with clear tracks in the mud, and photographs, they admitted the presence of a mountain lion, but claimed it was an isolated individual.

If active popluations of any of those three species were confirmed, any project in their vicinity would have to come under the scrutiny of...Fish and Wildlife. Just think of the paperwork. That's a lot of incentive to confirm endangered species, isn't it?

Flying with the Golden Eagles

Tree

Happy May

Well, April sure did fly by, didn't it?

Happy May. :)

I have had a busy week! Jen of all trades this week at the farm-combing cashmere, hooves,
cleaning, fence repair.

This morning we capped the week off by picking burdocks out of the bucks! Boss let them out into an adjacent field while R and I were preparing the Nash pasture for relocating. Apparently this field the bucks were in today is full of burdocks!

R gathered them in to grain once we were done cleaning, and our jaws dropped as the bucks filed in...many, many burdocks!

Some of them are old hands at burdock picking and seem to sense the picker is trying to help. Gingerman, for example, tilted his great white face up at me while I teased a handful of burrs out of his beard.

Some of them hate to be picked at. Monarch cried like a baby and I ended up holding him with a horn jammed in the fence so boss could get the burrs out. I found it too difficult to hold one horn in a hand and pick with the other hand.

Hopefully we will finish the other fence early next week and move the bucks to greener pastures!

The water levels are finally going down after our deluge. Part of the road to work is still barricaded, so I have been taking the long way around .

I saw the golden eagle today, and then immediately afterwards a Kingfisher on the power lines. Both would have been great photo ops had I managed to find the camera in the pile of stuff in the car. My groceries took a beating as I started flinging bags to get to my backpack, only to find the camera wasn't there...I assumed I had left it at home, and then recalled after I couldn't find it at home that I had packed another bag-buried in the groceries, grain, hay, etc at the time of the sightings.

*puts "clean out the car" on the weekend to-do list* :P

Golden Eagle

Aquila chrysaetos

March 24, 2008

Tree

That's right, children! A Golden Eagle! *does a little happy dance*

I used to live inside the range of the only breeding pairof Golden Eagles in the state. I would stand out in the dooryard, and hear them call as they were soaring, so I started calling back. I lived there about ten years. Then I moved about 100 miles away, but once took a friend on a roadtrip to the area.

I parked the car on the side of the road up on the blueberry barrens, just down the road from where I used to live. It was an excellent place to spot the goldens, but no sign of them when we stepped out. Since it was a nice day, I said, "let's wait a minute," and sure enough, a spot appeared in the sky.

I started whistling and whether the bird recognized the whistle or the car, or we just stuck out standing along the road, I'll never know. But it flew straight for us and circled lazily overhead.

Having deadlines to meet, we got back in the car and headed down the road, and the bird shadowed us over the road for about a half a mile, which was really cool!

Excuse me if I have shared this story before on the old blog-but it was a good one, and one that I love to tell! Heheh.

Back to today. I was driving home from the farm after combing a bunch of goats, and happened to have the camera on the seat from taking farm pix. I was in the golden's range, and another spot where I have frequently seen them in the past.

There it was! Circling over a gravel pit, roadside. I slowed the car and pulled to the right, sticking my head out the window and whistling while groping for the cam. I was in a bad spot, with a high embankment along the road to block the pit, but could see the bird through the young trees growing on the bank.

I kept whistling and decided to risk pulling ahead to get clear of the bank. The eagle stayed in view, circling and checking me out, while I was snapping pics off rapidfire. Finally the eagle flew off-up the road, and I took several of it retreating.

None of the pics are spot clear at that distance-this one was one of my favorites. :)