What is that thing in the sky?

Tuesday, November 6, 2012
As I backed the car from the garage, a strange sensation happened…I couldn’t see.  I reached for my sunglasses, covered in the dust of my unkempt car, blew them off and put them over my eyes.  The sun had returned after 11 days.  How do people in Alaska cope with the endless night of winter?

Dakota and I made our way to the park for a picture-taking hike.  We made our way to the marsh and circled it in hopes of catching up with an eagle or a beaver.  Neither appeared, but I continued to snap pictures of the waning sunlight reaching across the water and vegetation of the marsh.  I reached the far side when I noticed a large bird striking out across the sky with a wingspan that marked it as an eagle.  It landed on a dead tree in the middle of the marsh, so I waited for the next 20 minutes to get another shot of it.  From a distance, it appeared to be an immature eagle; it lacked the white head of the mature bird.  It finally took flight again and I snapped several more shots through my telephoto lens. 

I returned home and hopped on the trainer for a one-hour ride.  I was excited about down-loading the pictures, but knew if I didn’t get the ride in first, I might not do it at all.  I showered quickly after finishing the ride and returned to my office and downloaded my pictures.  As they were downloading, they flashed across the screen of my monitor as mostly overexposed whiteouts.  Something was wrong.  It was then that I remembered that Heidi had used my camera the other day when her battery was low on hers.  She’s a professional photographer and would never consider using the ‘automatic’ setting I’d left it on.  I’d watched her changing all the settings in the ‘manual’ mode, but never gave a thought to needing to change it back.  Well…I did…need to, that is.

I could see enough of the bird flying across the marsh to confirm my suspicion that it was likely the same immature bird I’d photographed earlier in the summer.  I know they can keep their youthful markings for four years, so this one was still just a young teenager…so to speak.  Clearly though, he likes the marsh and so I’ll need to get back there soon since the weather is going to be so favorable through the weekend.  I returned the camera to settings any amateur can handle and put it back in the car.  I’ll be ready next time.

Hike Duration: 70 minutes.  Bike Duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 80 bpm running and 120 bpm biking.
Calories burned during workout: 350 running and 850 biking.