Mood:  hungry

Yesterday the weather was finally perfect to fly. A little cold but the winds were much calmer than Tuesday. The above picture is of me and our pilot, Stanley. Stanley used to be a ranger at Ulmstead State Park but now flies for the Guard full time. You can see our lovely little tin can of a copter in the background. Stanley strapped me in and gave me the exact same death talk that Ty gave me last year. "In the event that I become incapacitated...." Once again I zoned out and imaged us all crashing to our death.

We left the airport at about 11:30am and headed straight for an area where a bald eagle nest had been reported. A co-worker and I had been out on foot the week earlier to locate it but no such luck. After about 10 seconds of searching by air I discovered it in a pine stand near a development.

I know the picture isn't real clear but if you look in the center of the picture you will see a white speck. That is the eagle. There were two birds on the nest and the female was in incubation posture. I now have to go back out and locate it on foot. But I was happy that we found it.

Next we flew towards to dam and the visitor center to take a few pictures.

The above is a picture of the dam. It isn't a concert dam like most of you are used to seeing. This is called an earthen dam. It is made out of rock, sand, dirt and grass with a conduit running through the center to release water downstream. On the left you see Falls Lake. On the right you will the tailrace and the emergency spillway.

This is a picture of the Visitor Center where I work. Can't you just imagine the views I have from my office? Jealous yet?

After a fly over to wave at my co-workers we headed up the lake to check out a few more nests. Two nests that we had observed last year were now gone. One destroyed by a storm and the other torn apart by a raccoon. We did see eagle on another nest and an adult and juvenile eagle soaring around below.

We had heard reports of some eagle activity up in the Beaver Dam Creek area so we headed up there next. While searching for the nest we discovered this.

Someone has built a Shanty Shack in game lands complete with rocking chair front porch. The only way to access this would be by canoe or kayak which amazes me because they somehow hauled all that building material out there. I am not sure if this is just a very elaborate hunting blind or if someone is actually living in it. I have given the info and picture to my boss so we will see what happens.

The flight lasted about 2.5 hours and there was only one insistence where I felt a little queasy. All in all it was a good flight but in all honesty I an glad to have both feet back on the ground.