I can imagine a bald eagle sitting on this snag....with an attitude of, this is my place~
But I wonder if the fishing is good here, and come to think of it have never seen bald eagles around here. The ocean is close by and it is teeming with life in comparison.
This is a beautiful lake, and serene, yet after feeling Sunday that we had to leave our reserved room at Lake Crescent Lodge and heading out to the ocean, a sharper distinction was felt, between the two places.
The color is so gorgeous in the lake, but the ocean is so alive, life is playing out there in a big way. The harbor seals and sea lions are catching chinook, salmon, and trying to eat them under water, but emerging to breathe the gulls attack to get a chunk of food. Eagles are also everywhere, and it is mating season, the sky is full of young bald eagles and many first year adults with white heads and tail feathers, yellow beaks, etc, markings of adulthood for an eagle, some are turning and their feathers are mottled.
Twice we watched as an eagle snatch a gull out of the air, and about 5 other gulls came to it's rescue, the eagle dropped it, and I really think the testosterone was high out there, and those gulls were annoying to the big boys. One younger eagle who was still brown was chasing an older eagle, and they latched talons in mid air more than once,, I was surprised that it was going on that way and I am wondering if it was fighting or juvenile play? Perhaps jealousy over white tail feathers?
But here at the Quileute River and Beach 1 at LaPush where we ended up Sunday, the distinctions are easy to see, and the eagles come close by to be observed. I saw a king fisher as well. The scene was dramatic, it was about territory, food, mating, and all those details of life that we often call politics.
However so far as meeting people that I found warm and enjoyable, I met a couple at Lake Crescent who I struck up a conversation with by the fire Saturday night. I found it easy to scan a variety of topics and enjoy a really stimulating conversation. I was interested in these people and the stimulating conversation was unique. She was a toxologists, and he was also a scientist, so the conversation was intelligent and witty, we laughed into the evening.
At Quileute everyone was refreshing, helpful, and warm to talk with for the most part. A few arrogant men on the river doing this or that, but arrogant men are easy enough to come across and arrogance is interesting to observe. But the natives there and some others were truly enjoyable to interact with. A couple from Tacoma had lived here all their lives, and had never been out here, which I find astonishing, but nonetheless they were enjoying it so much. Happy people were not hard to find here, and the shift in scenery quickly changed a mood that was turning dark via the Lake Crescent Lodge Mothers Day Fiasco.
