Clouds block everything normally in view. But the morning sun must be at work because the clouds are brightening. Placing my trust in that sun, I drive Aki and I out to Fish Creek.
Last week ice covered the first part of the trail. Today it is clear. The tide is retreating. This has encouraged eagles and crows to fly out several hundred yards to the beach edge.
I take a short detour off the trail and spot a heron feeding on grass land that will disappear when the tidal water returns.
It seems like only yesterday that ice covered the tiny moraine lakes and snow made it had to walk on these trails. Bears were probably still sleeping on nearby hillsides, and deer struggled, as they had all winter, to find eatable twigs. Well today almost every place on the moraine is bare and empty of color. It’s that time between winter and real spring, when the forest seems to pout.
Some willows are trying to branch out leaves. But most are bare. I came this morning to spot some swans but found only thawed out lakes and fresh bear tracks. Well, that’s an unfair understatement. We also saw robins and junkos carrying web improving roots and grasses to their building sites and a pair of freshly arrived ring-neck ducks.
We picked Auk Nu Beach for this mornings’ walk. The huge, old growth spruce crowding the trail keeps most raindrops off our parkas. It would have been a great idea if we had the place to ourselves. New leaves were exploding open on ever alder tree. But it was hard to enjoy it because of the long line of little grade schoolers chuckling on the beach.
I wouldn’t leave the woods for the beach on any other wet day. But after the parade of beach kids passed us, I walked with Aki across the beach gravel toward a gang of golden eye ducks and scoters feeding just offshore. Mergansers and mallards would have drifted into deeper water as we approached. But the scots and golden eyes ducks just ignored us. They were too busy harvesting the shallows.
I am drinking Barry’s Irish Breakfast Tea with a little milk. Aki is taking one of her post hike naps. I am trying to build up a tale to share from this morning’s beach walk. But I can’t stop thinking about the tea.
Rather than use an insulated stainless steel mug for the brewing, I dropped the tea bag into an old steel pot given to us years ago by an Irish family. The resulting tea tastes much more complex than the brew I drink most mornings. Makes me wonder how many cups of hot tea from the old pot we’ve drunk over the past forty years..
Before the tea party, Aki and I had walked along Sandy Beach. The wind hadn’t risen yet so Gastineau Channel still reflected the mountains and avalanches. We saw the usual mallard gangs, and a Savannah sparrow. We heard gulls whine, robins sing, and after we left the beach, a very grumpy eagle screech out complaints.
As we approached the complainer, another adult bald eagle dived toward a well-used eagles nest, which sits thirty feet off the ground in an old cottonwood tree. A gull, trying to snatch an egg or two, squawked and flew away. The eagle landed on a nearby limb. All night, rain and snow mix had soaked the eagle’s feathers. Now, after the rain stopped, it was spreading out its wings to dry. Another bald eagle poked its head above the nest’s edge to give her partner a disgusted stare.
Walking with Aki 