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By education and experience - Accountant with a specialty in taxation. Formerly a CPA (license has lapsed). Masters degree in law of taxation from University of Denver. Now retired. Part time work during baseball season as receptionist & switchboard operator for the Colorado Rockies. This gig feeds my soul in ways I have trouble articulating. One daughter, and four grandchildren. I share the house with two cats; a big goof of a cat called Grinch (named as a joke for his easy going "whatever" disposition); and Lady, a shelter adoptee with a regal bearing and sweet little soprano voice. I would be very bereft if it ever becomes necessary to keep house without a cat.
Mood:
Remembering
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White tailed eagles
Unfortunately photos at this link don't include any pictures of the birds I saw. The boat moved along at a pretty good clip, and it wasn't easy to maneuver out of gloves and mittens in time to focus and snap the shutter before the birds were out of range. But the BBC's nature pages have several good shots. Like this one.
You can read more about these magnificent birds here.
They have a nine foot wingspan. The sight of one of the birds keeping pace with us as we left the fjord heading back to the quay will stay in my memory bank a very long time.
The tour company which took us out to see the birds also took us to a famous maelstrom mentioned in literature quite a few times. (See responses to my blog entries for Sept 13 titled "heading north" for more information on the stories, and thanks to Beeg!) This was much better than any commercial fun ride could dish up!
The narrow fjord walls in the area, coupled with a relatively shallow sea floor create strong tidal motions, whirlpools, and eddies. Fish are sent close to the surface by the action of the moving tides, and sea birds by the hundreds swoop low over the swirling pools, scooping up lunch, dinner, snacks, and dessert in abundance. The pilot of the boat took us in just to the edge of the whirling pools, and we were then shot out to the side by the centrifugal force. We all immediately demanded that he do it again! An occasional splash of salt water on my face only added to the fun.
Several people who didn't go on the trip asked if I was frightened by the action of the boat. We were so close to each other, in bulky suits, on small bench type seats, that moving around much at all was the next thing to impossible. So although there was some bouncing around by the boat, it seemed to me that as passengers we were one with the boat, and there was no sensation of being flung around in space. Although I did feel like I had been on a very long horseback ride when I woke up the next morning!
It was worth every minute!
PS! Important update! As I was working on editing photos still not summarized on Flickr, I found a shot of two eagles in flight along the coast near Bodo. It's now included in the photo link above.
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