salmon berries | Walking with Aki

Sometimes rain forest rain keeps you trapped in your house. That’s when Aki refuses to leave our yard. This morning, I wondered how she would react to walking out of the house. Would she whine or happily walk over to the lawn to pee? This morning she peed.

After she relieved herself, we drove over to the Treadwell Woods, hoping that the forest trees would provide some protection from the soaking rain. This morning, it didn’t. But Aki took the increased hammering with patience. I tried to let emerging pink salmonberry flowers distract me. Rain gathering on their petals pulled down the flowers and made them sparkle. I quickly snapped a few pictures in case the raising wind would soon shake away the water drops weighing down the flowers.

On an otherwise empty beach, Aki snuffles the sand. I watch her even though it means facing an up-channel breeze that throws rain in my face. Two eagles in a nearby tree also watch the little dog. They turn their heads away when I point my camera at them. They are waiting for something editable to wash ashore.

In a week or so, the eagles will be pulling flesh from salmon carcasses marooned on the beach by the ebbing tide. For now, they must watch and wait for lesser fare. At least three more eagles roost in the beachside trees. Just down the beach, a belted kingfisher watches the glory hole bay while perched on a glacier erratic.

The kingfisher won’t fly away unless I get really close. I don’t, choosing to watch it watching me through a curtain of rain. Inside the Treadwell Woods, I have a similar stare down with a pine siskin. It and the other song birds show no fear of Aki nor I, which surprises me given all the goof ball dogs that galumph through the woods. Then I realize that this is their harvest time.