William Blake wrote, "When thou seest an eagle, then thou seest a portion of genius."
I was working for the American Bald Eagle Foundation in Haines, Alaska in November. This eaglecentric place gave me the opportunity to gawk at bald eagles feeding along the Chilkat River. There, the eagles find chum salmon in numbers enough to keep their appetites sated. There is something about looking at our national bird that is impossible to articulate. Seeing them is an indefinable joy that makes it nearly impossible to stop looking at them. In a world filled with unappreciated wonders, seeing an eagle is an exciting discovery. I want to see just one more eagle in the same way my old coach wanted his players to run just one more lap.
Bald eagles build the largest nests of any bird in North America. They are typically constructed of large sticks gathered from the ground or broken from dead branches. They add materials each year. Nests can weigh more than a ton, stretch eight feet across, and stand 10 feet high.
Young eagles have longer feathers than do the adults. The wingspan of a young bald eagle can be up to 6 inches longer than that of a mature bird.
It's a short drive from Haines to the 48,000-acre Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve that was established in 1982. There, eagles are found in abundance.
I've seen the bald eagles in Haines before. I've seen so many of them in a tree that it looked like a candelabra. Thousands of eagles congregate along the Chilkat River, attracted by the late fall run of chum (dog) salmon. The eagles come to the Chilkat Valley from a wide area to the Bald Eagle Council Grounds where springs keep a 5-mile section of the Chilkat River from freezing for most of the winter. This gives the eagles easy pickings on a large supply of spawned-out chum salmon carcasses at a time of the year when food is scarce.
The eagles hitching a ride on the wind caused me a near sensory overload with so many of the beautiful, squawking birds. The eagles are accustomed to traffic and humans (especially those bipeds equipped with cameras), and typically choose to ignore people. It makes sense for the eagles to perch motionless in the trees because it is a method of conserving energy during cold weather. They can usually find all the food they need within a couple of hours. Much of their effort is expended in stealing fish from one another and many of the eagles own master's degrees in the art of pirating.
In 1984, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service recorded 3,988 eagles and November is the peak time. The eagle's change in fate is a dramatic one, as from 1917 to 1952, 128,000 of Alaska's bald eagles were killed for territorial bounties of $1 or $2 per bird. The talons were required to collect the bounty. Some have estimated that as few as one of seven eagles that were killed were turned in for a bounty.
Eagles are important to man's stories. From mythology, the story is told of how Prometheus stole fire from heaven to relieve man's suffering. Zeus, angered, had him chained to a rock and condemned Prometheus to the everlasting torment of having his liver continuously pecked by an eagle. This was not covered by Blue Cross.
Native Americans depicted the eagle in their petroglyphs as the thunderbird. The eagle is mentioned 30 times in the Bible. Aeschylus, the Greek poet, had the misfortune of having an eagle mistake his baldhead for a rock. The eagle dropped a tortoise on his head in the hopes of breaking its shell. Aeschylus died.
As the well-known rhyme goes, "Up and down the City Road/In and out the Eagle/That's the way the money goes/Pop goes the weasel." This is the tale of a patron of a London pub named The Eagle on City Road had to pawn (pop) his belongings to get back some money in order to feed himself.
Each time I see our national birds on display, I am reminded that not all birds were created eagle.
Trumpeter swans
Our largest waterfowl, the trumpeter swan is 5-feet long, has an 80-inch wingspan, and weighs around 23 pounds. The male is called a cob, the female a pen, and the young are cygnets. The swans have prodigious appetites and feed on plant roots, seeds, and foliage. They build nests consisting of piles of vegetation 6-feet in diameter on marshy shores of lakes and ponds, sometimes on muskrat houses. They lay five to nine eggs.
Echoes From the Loafers' Club
"I wrote a poem about a man on a bicycle."
"How does it go?"
"He pedals it with his feet."
Driving by the Bruces
I have two wonderful neighbors - both named Bruce - who live across the road from each other. Whenever I pass their driveways, thoughts occur to me, such as: If someone wants you to seize a golden opportunity, he or she usually wants an opportunity to seize your gold.
The bumper sticker read
In Seattle, "I may be slow, but I'm ahead of you."
Think of the economy as a car's engine
I don't have to tell you about the economy. That's the job of the people on TV. Those talking heads are like the guy who stops by when you are under the hood of your stalled car and says, "It looks like you have engine problems."
T-shirt and flip-flops, really?
The weatherman lies to me, but I continue to listen to him. He has a demeanor and a suit that says, "Trust me. I wouldn't lie to you."
I believe him because he must know what he is talking about. After all, he is standing in front of a map filled with symbols. The scoundrel. I'll keep listening. It's an abusive relationship.
The man's first rule of shopping
Buy the first thing that fits.
A birthday party
I attended a 100th birthday party. The birthday girl didn't look her age. Most that make it to the century mark don't. I wished her a happy birthday and asked if she had any tips for those who wanted to match her longevity.
She replied, "Wear comfortable shoes."
A traveler's tale
The person seated next to me on the flight was friendly and talkative. He showed me his snazzy cell phone. I am an underachiever when it comes to cell phone usage. I need to use my cell phone more as it would likely make my life easier. I complimented my in-flight neighbor on his impressive phone.
He replied, "It does way more than I can make it do."
From those thrilling days of yesteryear
Do you remember waiting by the phone? I mean actually waiting near a telephone for a call. Now the cell phone follows us about and all we need do is to have it turned on.
Keeping stuff
I drove by a number of storage units. Buildings meant to hold the belongings of people who have nowhere else to store them. My parents put things away in a place where they would always remember where they put them. At least, that was the idea. The items usually ended up in the last place we would ever look for them. When I was a boy, storage units were empty coffee cans.
Dogs and cats
I called the cat. It frowned. If Timmy had depended on cats to save him from the lake as he had relied on Lassie, he would still be treading water.
Do-it-yourself roof repairs
The weather in Haines, Alaska, is not always good-natured. The day had been filled with snow and rain and wind. It was a day meant for soup and I found some delicious mushroom and wild rice soup at the Bamboo Room Restaurant. As I entered that fine establishment, I saw a bucket on the floor, catching trickles from a dripping ceiling. The buckets become ubiquitous during extremely wet weather as businesses discover where the roofs leak. I commented that the bucket was doing a fine job. The friendly waitress responded with, "We should shrink wrap the entire building."
What day is this?
The other day, one that happened to be a Monday, I said that it seemed like a Sunday. No one ever says that a day seems like the day it really is. Next Monday, I'm going to say, "It seems like Monday today."
Thanks for stopping by
"Life is like riding a bike. It is impossible to maintain your balance while standing still." - Linda Brakeall
"Karate is a form of martial arts in which people who have had years and years of training can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in the history of the world." - Dave Barry
Meeting adjourned
Dave Barry wrote, "A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person." Be kind.
