20
Wednesday, August 31, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
Eagles, eagles,
everywhere
Eagles have been a love
of my life from the time I
arrived in Oregon — where I
discovered them being killed
from 1080 poison put out by
government trappers killing
coyotes back in the early
’50s. Eagles are still with
me today as Sue and I help
to conduct a statewide sur-
vey with the Oregon Eagle
Foundation.
Like all birders who have
a special bird they enjoy and
see all the time in their sub-
conscious, I too see the shape
and movement of eagles
automatically; while driving
down the road, canoeing on
a lake or hiking—the shape
and movements of eagles are
always there.
A trip to Minnesota last
week awakened those senses
more than once. I met my son
Reuben at the MSL airport
and we had a Uber van drive
us to a little town just west
of the airport. We picked up
a four-wheel pop-up camper
and headed for his home in
Brainerd, Minnesota.
Bright and early the
next morning, I headed
west. At the crossing of the
Mississippi River, I met my
first eagle. First, I saw the
name of the river on the
roadside sign, the bridge
ahead, and suddenly right
above it a huge, beautiful,
female bald eagle com-
ing toward me abut 20 feet
above the bridge. “Wow!” I
thought, “What a wonderful
way to start the trip!”
And that was the begin-
ning of meeting up with
eagles as I headed west. The
adult male bald eagle I saw
while crossing the Missouri
River in Montana appeared
on my right and went right
over the rig while I was in
the middle of the bridge.
Sprinkled among the
eagles on other nearby
waterways were osprey
of all ages, inland gulls, a
white pelican or two and
over the fields, a few migrat-
ing Swainson hawks headed
south, which added even
more to the trip.
The Toyota developed a
serious overheating problem
as we approached Billings,
Montana, and I had to depart
the freeway. I took the first
exit immediately, and lo and
behold there was a firehall
with two guys working on
some equipment out in the
yard. When I pulled up they
immediately checked me to
be sure I was OK, then they
saw my engine problem.
While waiting for
everything to cool down, I
checked for external leaks
and found everything tight
as it should be, and when all
was cooled off the fireman
gave me water to recharge
everything and I drove into
Billings to spend the night.
There were no water
puddles under the rig in the
morning, so I fired it up
and got onto the freeway
again, heading west. About
40 miles east of Billings the
temperature gauge began
climbing, and by the time I
arrived at the exit to the little
town of Columbus I had to
make a choice.
I chose to go back to
Billings, as Columbus didn’t
look as though it would have
a shop that would solve my
problem. I took the exit and
when traffic allowed I took
the left turn under the free-
way and was about to turn
left back onto the freeway,
when out of the corner of my
eye I thought I saw an eagle
— and as a result, missed the
turn back onto the freeway.
Honest!
Having no other choice
Quilt Drawing
photo by Jim anderson
Adult bald eagle looking over the countryside.
but to continue into
Columbus I began looking
for a shop. That little adven-
ture tuned out to be even
more fun when the mechanic
discovered the water-pump
belt (which could only be
observed from under the
vehicle) was nothing but
black pieces of spaghetti.
A fix at a reasonable price
later, I was rolling back onto
the freeway.
The many crossings of
the Clark Fork in Montana
were also eagle moments.
The first time I crossed it
— now that eagle sightings
were in my subconscious —
things were different, I actu-
ally slowed down expecting
an eagle to appear.
See EAGlES on page 24
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