Brown water again?

After a pretty boring rainy day working the VC on Saturday (only 10 visitors in 7 hours), I came home to smelly water out of the tap once again.  Shucks!  I turned off the ice maker and bemoaned the fact that this happened on a weekend just like last week.  By Sunday morning, the water was pretty brown and undrinkable for me.  Brushing my teeth was not an enjoyable experience.  I reported it first thing this morning, and we are all hopeful that a permanent solution has been found.

We had about 50 fifth grade students from Mahnomen, MN, today.  It was the first time this school district has sent students to the refuge.  Considering this is their last week of school, all of them were very well behaved and I think everyone enjoyed the day.  We helped them through five different classes today. 

Most of the classes take place at the Chippewa Picnic Area.  As you can see, it was not very sunny today, and we got rained on several times.  As I drove to the picnic area, I was happy to see the usual bald eagle perched on the dead tree across the road.  The Chippewa Picnic Area was actually a CCC camp back in the early 1940’s, and some of the stone work still remains today.

For two of the five classes I worked with today, I got to set up and man the spotting scope.  There were two things I noticed when I looked at the picture one of the other volunteers took of me working with the students.  First of all, I hope Donna Cave will notice how stylish I am with my pants tucked into my socks.  The result of that fashion statement (and Deet) was only two ticks to pluck off this afternoon!  Secondly, I also noticed that I’m about the same size as fifth graders.  Eek!  How big are these kids going to get?

Here’s what we were looking at… a bald eagle nest.  It was about a quarter of a mile away so we were no bother to it, and some of the kids were lucky enough to see the baby eagle poke its head up once in a while.  All of the students got to see the adults perched nearby or soaring overhead.  It was an exciting time for them.

One of the young girls was just fascinated by my camera and asked to take a picture with it.  Here’s what she saw.  If you look really closely, you can see about 50 dots in the sky.  Those aren’t birds.

We were surrounded by hordes of emerging dragonflies.  Thousands upon thousands of them filled the sky.  That’s also the reason there were at least 100 cedar waxwings plucking them out of the air for a welcome feast.  The circle of life is all around us if we take the time to look and see.

After the kids headed home, I went back to the same spot of all the dragonflies, and captured this picture of both of the adult eagles perched in the same dead tree that the young girl had taken a picture of.  It’s too bad she couldn’t have joined me.  I think she would have been thrilled.

Tomorrow, we’ll have about 100 fourth grade students from Moorhead, MN.  I’ll be manning the eagle post again, but I’m really looking forward to my assignment after that.  One of the biologists has asked that I check all the back road trails to document any trees that may have fallen across those roads less traveled over the winter.  Ha ha!  Could there be a bear or wolf sighting in my near future?  I sure hope so!  I’ve asked Bridgett Hatch if she’d like to go with me, and she said yes.  It’s always better to have two people on these treks into the unknown just in case.  

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy