Beaver Pond Trail

What's the last thing you expect to see on a trail called "Beaver Pond Trail"?



Well it is, really. I think I'd swerve off the road out of sheer shock if I ever saw a deer crossing at a deer crossing sign. They don't know what those signs mean.

Of course the deer don't put those signs up themselves, either. Beavers are considerably more proactive about declaring their presence.

A random title for some random shots.

Here's a Red Tail whose injury is pretty self evident displaying the most could barely be bothered to display display I've ever seen. She's definitely not habituated - I think she was just being lazy.



Here's the Bald Eagle we have scheduled for release. Not a technically great shot, but I like getting shots of attitudes that don't generally get published. It's not elegant or breathtaking or majestic, but it's as interesting a phase of flight as any other.



Here's our resident Golden reacting to all the Bald Eagle releasing/catching/re-releasing activity going on in her aviary.



Okay, maybe it's more accurately a shot of the Golden not reacting to all the Bald Eagle releasing/catching/re-releasing activity going on in her aviary. We're definitely not concerned with the effects of stress on her metabolism.

Here's the beautiful, soulful Barred Owl.



Those deep brown eyes own my soul.

If I don't read this title often enough it'll turn feral.

The young eagle has continued to improve, but has not stopped exhibitting clear signs of habituation. The only possible cure for that is a bunch of other eagles.

I hauled him outside.



He took flight.



He baffled himself.



Don't look at me, eagle, you put yourself there.



He found his way down.



He surveyed his new roommates.



He took flight again.



He... well, he's young.



He settled in.



Yeah, that's him on top. That's our resident Thor with the open beak vocalizing his opinion of the seating arrangement.

The eagle closest to the foreground is the one that's been flying around. He's due to be released amid much pomp and ceremony. A local lodge is holding a pow wow for him.

The eagle hiding and running away in the back is hiding and running away from me. After hauling the baby out I hauled him in for a wing check and rebandage (visible on his wing there), so he doesn't like me very much. His wing's doing well.

All three will survive their maladies. In the case of the baby it's a true miracle. I only today found out what his bloodwork results were when he was admitted. Well below the threshold at which birds are expected to survive.

It's the year of the eagle indeed. Happily it will be a successful year.

Meanwhile I'm just delighted that Thor has company.

It's too late to write a decent title too.

Why are beavers beloved by all of nature?

Because they make the trees smile!



The rain that has been refreshing us by the bucket allowed enough of a reprieve to get out today. Now it's late and I'm tired, but full very pic intensive posts about Beaver Pond trail are forthcoming!

I wrapped the title in old grocery bags to keep it dry.

Today it rained. Hard. I stayed at home, but my mind was back on Hayburger trail with the butterflies.

Simmon's Trail

I am so in love with this trail.







Just be careful about walking in someone else's footsteps - especially after a rain. Someone might be living in them.

Hayburger Trail

It actually is pure coincidence that the first trail I'm writing about in this blog is trail #1. Does make me think, though, that it would look ever so tidy if I were to both introduce and revisit the trails in numerical order throughout the year. That's fine and dandy for trails 1-3. That might become a problem by trail 4. Moss lake. That is not an easy hike, and I learned today that a lot of my hiking muscles are still in hibernation. I usually like to spend awhile hiking for an hour or two a day before attempting that one.

I'm not saying it's not going to happen. I'm just saying I'm not going to force the issue.

I do love Hayburger. It has the foresteyest looking forests.



I think of it as a storybook hike.



I've named portions of the trail to orient my personal sense of place. You have to pass the halfway mark before you reach what I think of as the chapel.



It's a comfortable place. Close and shaded. Not without it's reach for heaven, though.



Appropriately enough I think of the next portion of trail as the Cathedral, where the intimacy gives way to majesty.



I didn't consciously assign these names. They just occured to me the very first time I hiked the trail, and as a result they stuck.

This I haven't named. It's just a lovely, quiet space.



Hayburger has a lot of different spaces. Come to think of it, I think that's when I tend to wind up on the Hayburger Trail - when I'm craving space.

I had to sketch this title from memory too.

Things I didn't photograph today because I forgot my camera:

- two gorgeous brand spanking new fresh out of the egg Doves
- a Bald Eagle careening around the large flight aviary in pursuit of a Pigeon
- a Cooper's Hawk hopping through the rafters in the main treatment area (my fault - bad door monitoring)
- a Broad Winged Hawk cockily displaying next to a Ferruginous Hawk (my fault again - not a day that will go down in my annals of greatness)
- a successfuly rehabbing Red Tail Hawk and Swainsons Hawk settled in their new outdoor enclosure, perching side by side and looking gorgeous

I guess I was meant to just enjoy the day and not immortalize it. It just figures that in the two years that I've had the camera the first week I forget to bring it is the week I start this blog.

Thankfully I did have my camera with me for my shift at the Raptor Shelter last week when I got to meet this guy - a fourth year Bald Eagle (hence the not quite pure whiteness of his "baldness" and dark beak) that is, by all appearance and behaviour, an imprint. He acts like a puppy. His feathers show signs of having been confined.



He seems to prefer being hand fed. What's more during my last interaction with him of the day last week he asked me for food.

So I gave him some food.

I've seen dogs less at ease eating with someone hovering over them. I changed all the newspapers all the way around his block while he ate. I was barely glanced at, but definitely acknowleged.



Obviously not a releasable bird if he doesn't start to show signs of independence, but a wonderful teaching bird for the shelter if does need to be kept. I've made it clear that I would like to be very involved with his training if that is to be the case. He's exhibitted nothing but the sweetest temperament since being admitted, and I'm keen to learn. The hope is that we'd both benefit from time spent together.

He was found emaciated on a golf course. My wondering is if those strange circumstances don't indicate a clandestine surrender. You've been keeping an Eagle illegally, it gets sick, you can't take it for treatment without being charged, you drop it off in a safe place where it's sure to be found?

Well at least that would indicate that the jerk that ruined his life loved him. It's not everyone that can say that.

On a clear day you can see this title for miles around.

Definitely one of my favourite views in Elk Island Park:



...and definitely one of the stronger motivations for keeping this blog - to document the changing of it's complexion through the seasons. If the past is any indication of the future to come, that complexion will have bison beauty marks from time to time.

Hopefully I won't find any bison here:



One of us would have to turn around and go back, and intuition informs me that it wouldn't be the buffalo! Thankfully I don't think a buffalo would be even slightly tempted to traverse it, but it is their park - noone would stop them if they were!

Even the tiniest critters can completely transform a view.



I'd be interested to know the story behind this transformation:



....but then the mystery is the beauty in so many ways.

I had to chew all day to get enough pulp for this title.

It's just so hard to sit in front of a glowing box when the rest of the world's drenched in sunlight. Quick n' dirty photo post time!

The shy ones are in the water.



...and then he got even closer.



...and then I apparently did something disagreeable.



Don't let the lack of orange signs fool ya - this is a construction zone:

The other title startled and ran off.

It's hard being shy when you're naturally conspicuous.