Friday, January 31, 2020

Eagles on ice

Bald eagle sightings 30 feet off the Barr Lake loop trail
Driving toward Barr Lake, a reservoir on flatland north of Denver International Airport, I just wanted to see one. I didn’t have to get close. I didn’t need a photo. I just needed to see an eagle, even at great distance.

Barr Lake’s Loop Trail covers 8.8 miles, and an impressive amount of fauna, especially in winter. Groundhogs occupy a patch of ground, their burrow holes extending onto the trail. With private property around most of the lake, small herds of cattle grazed across the park boundary.

In winter’s depths, the birds remain the park’s star attraction, especially its cadre of bald eagles. Chickadees, finches and starlings flitted among the spindly bushes along the shore. The ever-adaptable Canadian geese generate little excitement (flocks cross the sky above my house daily), but eagles provide perennial excitement. I also wondered how I might hold up on a trail route that would exceed 9 miles. I started fine, talking with the other meetup members who assembled in the sunny but freezing morning.

The rookery
Not every stretch is scenic. The trail dips below a damn, leading to an unexciting stretch before it resumes its lakeside course. As my camera stay dormant, I remembered the observation tips from past trips to Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee’s bastion of wintering bald eagles in the state’s northwestern corner. Look to treetops, especially where ice does not cover the lake. Look for thatches of brush high in the trees, which could be nests. Listen for cries (not the inaccurate Hollywood cries of red-tailed hawks that have misled generations about the vocalizations of eagles). I started watching the trees as soon as the trail began.

Most of all, trust your eyes in eagle country – one beauty of bald eagles is their unique appearance. If you think you have seen one, you probably have, since they are hard to mistake for anything else. Juveniles can be mistaken for golden eagles, but not mature bald eagles. When entering habitat of species exciting to see in the wild, it’s logical to jump at the first chance to photograph a member, no matter how weak the photos appear. The setting offers no guarantee of future encounters.

Like the person who took shot after shot of the first Yellowstone bison they spotted, only the happen upon a herd of hundreds deeper in the park, hoping the eagles would reveal themselves the further we moved along the trail. Today the first distant eagle provided the gateway to maybe 20 sightings. Less than a mile up the trail, our hiking friends spotted four more eagles high in the trees, these maybe 30 feet from the trail. Mostly they ignored us, the best results eagles offer. One juvenile flew off while we observed them, flapping its wings in a slow, powerful raptor stroke before gliding away. The trail moved on. I lost track of miles. We stopped to talk with photographers in search of eagle encounters and pointed to our photos a few miles back.

Can't forget the cows
At one point, I stopped with another photographer to gather some shots of the cattle. For all the delight at seeing bald eagles, a little herd of grazing cattle could brighten the day. The cattle chewed both dead grasses and fresh hay deposited by their owners. Having spent little of my life among farm animals, a few minutes with some cattle could sustain me through urban life for days. An island dubbed the rookery for its maze of nests had a few guardian eagles high in the branches. Many species use the nests below them, and the island offers an easily defendable spot for less-predatory birds to ward off animals that would harm their eggs and young.

The boardwalk and its gazebo ending displayed the full scope of the eagles presence on Barr Lake. A huge nest occupied by an eagle couple for several seasons – they mate for life and return to repair the same giant nests–filled the top of one tree. Another eagle sat among the waterfowl near an open spot on the ice, munching on a fish it snared. The ducks and geese seemed surprisingly unconcerned about the predator in their midst. On a nearby island, one tree sported at least four eagles of various age, at least two immature bald eagles with brown heads and white feathers spread among their brown on their wings.

Human activity peaked around the gazebo boardwalk. At 1.3 miles from the nature center and with a golf cart shuttle running every half-hour, it made for an easy spot to look at the eagles. We took a counterclockwise route on the lake loop to make the boardwalk a last stop on a long trip, a reward for tired legs almost back to the parking lot.

Legs grew tired. Someone dropped a park map on the trail, and bending to retrieve it required unexpected effort. My legs ached as we approached the visitor center and the short bridge back to the parking lot. Years passed since I covered nine miles at any speed. Hamstrings, quads and hips all stung and creaked. In fairness, I tried not to think about distance – after I spotted a marker for the sixth mile (3 miles into our hike) I ignored further milestones until the 1-mile marker just past the gazebo and boardwalk. Sore or not, distance is easily forgotten on a route of steady eagle sightings.

Ducks, geese and five eagles watching them silently
The nesting pair on guard duty

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