Happy trip over the bridge..

I was beginning to despair seeing my friends again....afraid maybe they had moved their nest somewhere else and would not be seen upon the bridge anymore. But earlier this afternoon there was Ernest, sitting atop the very first light standard after the western high rise. I always wave to him when I see him....to either of the eagles. Somehow everything seems right with the world when they are there. By the time I returned home, just a few moments ago, Ernest had flown and was nowhere to be seen. But now I know that he is still around, and that makes everything seem in its place.

520 Bridge is closed for weekend...

I didn't drive the bridge today but did drive 520 east into Redmond and back. There was a sharp shinned hawk on one of the light standards, and an osprey on another. Judging by the activities of the birds at our back yard feeders the bird population is really hungry as winter slowly winds down here. We've had as many as two dozen pine siskins at a time at the feeder we've filled with nijer seed, and the house finches, Oregon juncos, red breasted sapsuckers and chickadees are ravenous as well. I'm going to get some more bird seed at Wild Birds Unlimited this weekend.

The Evergreen Point bridge, however, is closing tonight and will be closed until 5 am Monday morning. So there will be no eagle watching until next week. I hope that my friends, Ethel and Ernest, are well and that I've simply missed seeing them in the last couple of weeks. The calendar says that March is at hand....so I think Ethel may soon disappear for perhaps extended periods of time if she is sitting on eggs. There has been some minor worry that the widening of the 520 Bridge might disturb the areas around the eagles' current nest in The Arboretum, though most likely not until at least a year from now when construction goes into high swing on the west side of the bridge.

No Eagles....again

It has now been two weeks since I have seen the eagles. They should know how worried I get when I don't see them for awhile. The wind was gale force this afternoon, huge white caps on the south side of the floating bridge. Maybe on a day like today Ethel and Ernest hang out at the nest..... or something. One of the ospreys was swooping down to the surface of Lake Washington on the north side of the bridge, but I didn't see it catch anything. The herons were occupying the red buoys in Portage Bay again. But no eagles.

Seattle was protected by the "rain shadow" of the Olympic Mountains all day and we got almost no rain whatsoever, while areas just north and just south of the city saw a deluge. By the weekend this warm Pineapple Express will disappear and we're expecting another round of snow and ice by the weekend. Even so, the days are stretching out now, and bringing a promise of spring and then summer. Just thinking about almost 20 hours of daylight between dawn and dusk brightens my mood.....winter WILL eventually be over.

No Eagles....again

It has been over a week since I've seen either of the eagles. I hope everything is OK with them. I wonder if it is possible that Ethel may be getting a bit of an early start on starting a new family.....that maybe she is already sitting on eggs in their nest in The Arboretum. This is supposed to happen in March but it has been relatively mild this month, especially after our icy & snowy month of January. Nevertheless I will be relieved to catch sight of either Ethel or Ernest soon. Just to know they are still around and doing well. Next time I have a chance to see them will probably not be until next Tuesday at the earliest.

Crow & a Krispy Kreme Doughnut

No eagle sighting today on my round trip over the bridge. It is another beautiful day here, and the recent rain has left the air crystal clear. In Portage Bay, between the Seattle Yacht Club and the houseboat community there are 10 or 12 bright red buoys in the water. Upon every single one of them stood a blue heron today, all of them in the one legged pose they favor. There were a pair of ospreys on lamp posts at mid-span. But neither the herons nor the ospreys could beat the sight of a big Northwest Crow who landed on the stop sign at the top of the 520 off-ramp coming home....with a lovely looking glazed doughnut in his beak. He landed on the sign post, and began to eat his delicacy. It kind of made me want to go buy a bag of doughnuts.

No Ethel nor Ernest today...

This afternoon brought blustery showers at the same time the sun emerged from behind the clouds to the west, and a perfect rainbow reached all the way across Lake Washington to our north. But no sign of Ethel nor Ernest as we traveled in either direction. The osprey was atop one of the light standards on the east side, after the bridge. And the seagulls were out in great numbers.

Hover-craft seagull, Ethel at midspan

A cool, drizzly day today in the Puget Sound region. The wind is always from the south on overcast and damp days like today. And in the slight breeze that is just strong enough to make small ripples on the surface of Lake Washington a glaucous seagull was suspended almost in midair over the midspan of the 520 Bridge. It kind of looked like a figure on a crib mobile, suspended by a nearly invisible string that had been anchored above to the low-lying clouds. Seagulls not only can fly, they can hover....wings spread but quiet....on only a hint of wind. In the area of the Arboretum a blue heron had claimed every piling and a flock of Canada Geese flew overhead from north to south as we passed below.

Ethel was sitting atop one of the light standards on the middle span of the bridge when we traveled westbound this morning. This isn't the typical perch for either of the eagles...they are nearly always west of the western high rise. By the time we returned she had flown off somewhere. No sign of Ernest this time.

Back to normal.....

Awoke to a drizzly day today. All good things must end, and our streak of magical mid-winter weather is now memory. The raccoons were up in the maple tree this morning....a mother and twins that looked about six to eight months old. They are not my favorite animals (they can be pretty nasty...) but I'm happy to see that they survived the bitter cold January snow and ice storms. No trips planned over 520 for the next couple of days. The eagles are habit forming...I look forward to any chance of seeing them. I'm curious to see if Ethel disappears next month to sit on eggs.

No eagles today, but a crow/squirrel brouhaha in the backyard....

And yet another beautiful day here in the Northwest. We may rue this dry winter come August when it is always droughty around here and we have no water in the reservoirs to power our hydro-electricity. But for now, we are celebrating every lovely day of sunshine and warmth. It looks like this streak my be dwindling by the end of the week, however, as we slide back down to normal temps and normal rainfall.

No sign of Ethel nor Ernest on the bridge today. But we had a little bit of wildlife drama right in the backyard this morning before we left. Two very fat squirrels and one huge crow were in a fisticuffs over some bit of something.....maybe a piece of pumpkin rind from the compost heap or an even more delectable morsel like a dead mouse....and the battle was raging as we watched. Eventually, however, the overweight squirrels gave in, and the crow was left with the prize. In no time whatsoever he had invited some of his closest crow friends to join him in his feast.

62 Degrees - Heaven!

Everyone is walking around saying "Wow, winter is over!" And by the looks of this glorious day, spring has arrived in the Pacific Northwest. It seems hard to believe that less than two weeks ago we were locked in a deep freeze with a foot of snow on the ground. I'd get up in the morning and refill the bird feeders in our back yard so the chickadees, juncos, house finches and red breasted sapsuckers would not starve.....and check out the latest tracks through the snow on our patio from the cold night before. One morning there were the tracks of two raccoons, an adult and a youngster. We hadn't seen any raccoons for over a year in our yard but they are clearly still around. There were also tracks from the little white tailed rabbits that have frequented our neighborhood for the last few years. They have a hard time of it, with traffic zooming by and predators like the local coyote who has also been responsible for the demise of several house cats. Anyway, today was magic, and the forecast is for several more days of bright sunshine and warm temps. The moon is full or nearly so......which for unexplained reasons has always coincided with clear, dry weather in our region ...or so it seems to this observer. I didn't make it over the 520 Bridge today, so no sightings of Ethel or Ernest. Nevertheless my feathered friends must be loving this weather as much as we do. I look forward to my trip on Tuesday and to the hope of seeing them again.

Spectacular Seattle Day

What a spectacularly beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest. Glorious Mt Rainier (locally referred to simply as "The Mountain") rising like a gigantic ice cream cone on the Southern horizon above Lake Washington.... the sun is shining in an azure sky, and we are enjoying our warmest day of the winter....by far. 53 degrees F (~ 12 C), and while that's a tad bit short of the earlier promises of 60...we will take it! And watching over it all was Ernest upon the favored light standard above the 520 Bridge as we traveled west this morning shortly after 9 am. He wasn't there on the way home......anytime you see a glaucous seagull upon any of the light poles on the western portion of the bridge you know you will not see Ethel or Ernest, and there were several of them hanging out by 11:30 am. (The seagulls are not stupid, nor are they suicidal.) This magical weather is supposed to hold for several days. So even if we return to winter later this month we will be replenished by these golden days.

No sign of either eagle this morning westbound over the bridge. I'm always disappointed when I fail to catch sight of my friends, but in a way how surprising the frequency which we do see one or both of them on either portion of our round trip. We came home via I-90 from our trip to The Museum of Flight (awesome place!) so it will be tomorrow before we have a chance to see Ethel or Ernest again.