This morning one of our local Bald Eagles created a lot of excitement for the Coots here on Long Lake outside Lacey. For a while, the eagle seemed to be fishing, hovering over the lake and occasionally diving, but it never caught anything. We have at least 200 Coots on the lake, as usual, and after a while the eagle turned its attention to them, chasing the flock hither and thither, forcing them into the reeds or under some overhanging trees. Now and then the eagle perched for a while, then took up the chase again. I never saw it catch a Coot, and it's gone now. I would have thought that by diving into a closely packed raft, it could easily catch one, but it didn't. I felt sorry for the little coots, but also for the hungry eagle. I'm reminded of the story of the woman who took her little boy to a movie about Roman times, including a scene where they were throwing Christians to the lions (did that ever really happen?), and the boy started to cry. So she naturally tried to comfort him--it's just movie, they aren't really killing people, and so on--and he said, "Mommy, that poor little lion ain't got no Christian!"

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503