Wildlife

We're gonna skip the bowling update for this week except to say that I was one over and two under my average and we lost all the games.  There.  

What I really wanna talk about is being outside, and enjoying nature.  This past weekend we went to Hog Island Wildlife Management Area (WMA).  To access this area, you have to enter through Dominion's Surry Nuclear Power Plant, but once through, it's like you've transformed into another world.   We were given a heads up about an eagle's nest near where we would be, so we were really looking forward to seeing what we could see.  

As soon as we left the paved road, and hit the dirt road of the WMA, we saw an eagle diving into the water to scoop up a fish, and circle around.  He headed off into the trees, so we headed on down the road a ways.  It was a bit far to be the eagle's we had been tipped off about, so it was definitely a treat.

As we got to the location, we found the geocache, then headed out toward the meadow to see what we could see.  We weren't disappointed.  We immediately saw the eagle's nest.    You can't miss it!  It's a big dark mass in a Pine tree.

I looked around and that's when I saw an eagle sitting on a branch a few trees over.  I grabbed the camera, and was making my way across the meadow to see if I could capture him on the branch, but he took off.  We weren't close, mind you.  And while there was a meadow, there was a stopping point where the meadow was too high and thick to trample through.  We watched from the edge while flew and circled for a while.  Tried to get some pics, but without a fancy camera with incredible zoom, it wasn't easy.  Did manage to get a few.  Even on with the eagle flying and the nest in view.

After watching him/them for a bit, it's certainly easy to see why they are a national symbol.   They are beautiful, strong, and majestic.  

This is definitely a place to go and see wildlife, and we'll be back.  We've been told that there are other great sites to see in this area, but parts of them were blocked off due to waterfowl management.  Hopefully they'll be open before all the bugs return.   Hog Island can be BRUTAL in the summertime with the blood-thirsty little buggers...

AMW