There are still huge snowbanks on either side of the highway, but the maintenance guys pushed the snow away from the shoulders a month ago, so the sides are clear. The pullout is always good for a bunch of trash and I left two bags almost full there before I started the return walk.
Some chirping caught my attention half way home and at first I thought the yellow legged sandpipers were back. Boy, I thought, they're going to be surprised. The lake is still a block of ice.
Instead, as the noise came closer, I looked up from the ditch and saw two bald eagles land in trees about a hundred feet from me. Then I looked higher.
Two huge golden eagles were circling a hundred feet off the ground. I pulled the camera out of the safety vest pocket and tried my best to get a shot of those two birds rising hundreds of feet on air currents, never flapping their wings. The bald eagles sat in their trees and watched, too. I have a hunch the bald eagles might have approached too near the golden eagles' nesting area and been chased away.
I tried several shots of the golden eagles, but between the bright sunshine that made seeing the LCD screen impossible and constant movement, I never did capture an image. I aimed the camera right at them and never got one. Maybe they were ghost eagles.
The bald eagle closest to the road sat and watched. It didn't even care that I was standing right across the road from it, and obliged me with a few poses.
Now it's a quarter to ten at night and I'm heading to bed to continue reading a book that kept me up until 3 AM.
A quarter to ten at night, and it's still light outside. Alaska. Ya gotta love it.