I am off for a few days, taking a trip with friends to Monhegan Island, a small place off the coast of Maine. I will be completely off the Internet until Thursday. This will give you a chance to re-read some of the latest, but “complex” posts.
Yesterday I heard a few loons sounding off with their unmistakable calls. While scanning the horizon, I captured a large bird in the binoculars. It was a bald eagle swooping over the seabirds lolling on the water surface and, apparently, frightening them. Their calls, as I have learned over the years, serve as warnings that dangerous conditions have appeared. I saw and heard the same thing a few years ago when an Eagle swooped in very close to my boat and scooped up and carried off a duckling baby.
We have discovered a second eagle’s nest not far from our cottage. After years of their complete absence from the bay our cottage abuts, it is always very exciting to spot them. The other nest, on a small island about 15 minutes out toward open waters, still has one juvenile nesting and flexing his/her wings. I expect the bird will be gone and on its own in a week or so. Seeing these birds reminds me of the fragility of the “natural” world in relation to the stress we place on it, but also reveals the resiliency of the system once we remove those stresses.