When the Bald Eagles gathered on Sunday morning the movement from fall to winter was in the air and spirits were high.
We began by checking the oil on Stubbs, the girls leading the process with some coaching. One of the pieces of advice given by the mentor was: "Always be sure to put the oil in the right place - check to see which cap is the oil cap." And, since Stubbs needed a bit of oil, the girls did just that, correctly locating the oil tank. What this mentor failed to remind is to be sure what you are putting in the tank is actually oil... after the full quart went in, we discovered it was transmission fluid. Whoops. Lesson learned, and there was an opportunity to talk about our motto "Mistakes are Teachers" and to have collective problem solving ensue. Life is not about avoiding unexpected problems, but rather, settling into them and figuring out where to go from there. In this case, we decided to take our other bus, Moose, to be on the safe side of engine health :) While Aimee went the short distance to fetch Moose, Laurel and the Bald Eagles checked in. We discovered from our mechanic later that this mistake is ok - whew!
Then, we were on our way east! En route, we caught glimpses of numerous creeks, two majestic bald eagles, and the ever-lowering snowline on the mountains. Once on Wickersham Road, less than a mile from the nest boxes, we discovered our second unexpected obstacle: water over the road. We parked, walked past the notification sign and to the water, and had a collaborative decision making council about what to do, with safety foremost in our mind. We considered walking through with boot-clad people carrying others, but understood that we'd need to carry supplies 3 miles round trip to and from the boxes. A better plan seemed to be to drive around and access Innis Creek Road further north... until a resident drove up and let us know the water over the roadway was even deeper there. He also told us that this situation is fairly typical for the area, and that residents simply drive over the water (not long after, we witnessed 5+ low clearance Prius's do just that). After watching him and testing water depth, we knew that we could safely drive over the roadway with the bus.
We arrived at Innis Creek to check on the wood duck nest boxes a former GEC group built and installed in the spring of 2011. The hope was that we would open the boxes to find the telltale signs of wood duck occupancy: nests made from feathers, mud, and shavings, and egg membranes left from hatched young. Typically the procedure for accessing the boxes is quite straightforward, but we ran into all kinds of challenges due to the excessive recent rains and subsequent flooding, and ended up in our own comedy of errors as we slish-sloshed our way to the boxes. In the end, only one of three boxes in this area was reachable, and that only by those who wore high water boots.
Fortunately, we were able to access the other three boxes further up the road, and collected data on each, which we will report back to Tricia Otto, birder extraordinaire, who helps us with this wood duck monitoring program. After checking four boxes, we discovered that the wood ducks have yet to find our shelters, and wondered why (fewer wood ducks in general, already prime natural cavities in the area). As we explored around the creek and mossy woods we discovered a few salmon making their way upstream, lots of woodpecker habitat, the diversity of fungi popping up everywhere in the forest, and a wetland wonderland filled with mossy logs for traversing.
After an impromptu forest wedding (one never knows what will be conjured on a GEC day, but imaginative play is certainly encouraged!), we gathered for our closing circle. After reviewing all our outings this season, we asked how the girls thought their group had grown over the season. All were in agreement that they had bonded much more as a group, in part due to the sleepover at season's start, and that this bonding built more trust, sharing, joy.
We began by checking the oil on Stubbs, the girls leading the process with some coaching. One of the pieces of advice given by the mentor was: "Always be sure to put the oil in the right place - check to see which cap is the oil cap." And, since Stubbs needed a bit of oil, the girls did just that, correctly locating the oil tank. What this mentor failed to remind is to be sure what you are putting in the tank is actually oil... after the full quart went in, we discovered it was transmission fluid. Whoops. Lesson learned, and there was an opportunity to talk about our motto "Mistakes are Teachers" and to have collective problem solving ensue. Life is not about avoiding unexpected problems, but rather, settling into them and figuring out where to go from there. In this case, we decided to take our other bus, Moose, to be on the safe side of engine health :) While Aimee went the short distance to fetch Moose, Laurel and the Bald Eagles checked in. We discovered from our mechanic later that this mistake is ok - whew!
Then, we were on our way east! En route, we caught glimpses of numerous creeks, two majestic bald eagles, and the ever-lowering snowline on the mountains. Once on Wickersham Road, less than a mile from the nest boxes, we discovered our second unexpected obstacle: water over the road. We parked, walked past the notification sign and to the water, and had a collaborative decision making council about what to do, with safety foremost in our mind. We considered walking through with boot-clad people carrying others, but understood that we'd need to carry supplies 3 miles round trip to and from the boxes. A better plan seemed to be to drive around and access Innis Creek Road further north... until a resident drove up and let us know the water over the roadway was even deeper there. He also told us that this situation is fairly typical for the area, and that residents simply drive over the water (not long after, we witnessed 5+ low clearance Prius's do just that). After watching him and testing water depth, we knew that we could safely drive over the roadway with the bus.
We arrived at Innis Creek to check on the wood duck nest boxes a former GEC group built and installed in the spring of 2011. The hope was that we would open the boxes to find the telltale signs of wood duck occupancy: nests made from feathers, mud, and shavings, and egg membranes left from hatched young. Typically the procedure for accessing the boxes is quite straightforward, but we ran into all kinds of challenges due to the excessive recent rains and subsequent flooding, and ended up in our own comedy of errors as we slish-sloshed our way to the boxes. In the end, only one of three boxes in this area was reachable, and that only by those who wore high water boots.
Fortunately, we were able to access the other three boxes further up the road, and collected data on each, which we will report back to Tricia Otto, birder extraordinaire, who helps us with this wood duck monitoring program. After checking four boxes, we discovered that the wood ducks have yet to find our shelters, and wondered why (fewer wood ducks in general, already prime natural cavities in the area). As we explored around the creek and mossy woods we discovered a few salmon making their way upstream, lots of woodpecker habitat, the diversity of fungi popping up everywhere in the forest, and a wetland wonderland filled with mossy logs for traversing.
After an impromptu forest wedding (one never knows what will be conjured on a GEC day, but imaginative play is certainly encouraged!), we gathered for our closing circle. After reviewing all our outings this season, we asked how the girls thought their group had grown over the season. All were in agreement that they had bonded much more as a group, in part due to the sleepover at season's start, and that this bonding built more trust, sharing, joy.
Reflecting on the season past, we ended our day by creating the Web of Life from things we'd all connected to this season: mossy woods, Salish Sea, water, teamwork, strength, cedar, salmon, downy woodpecker, wetlands, one another. We agreed that humans are connected to every aspect of this web, and have tremendous power to impact it in both positive and negative ways. This underlines our GEC motto All Things Are Connected, and helps us understand that whenever one thing in the web is altered, it affects all the other aspects. We reiterated that GEC is all about strengthening the web of life, as well as the bonds between each other, and invited all Bald Eagles who wish to continue to be part of that to return in the spring. We hope they will!
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