Surprises at Hallam Lake

After almost nine months at ACES (has it really been that long?), I'm beginning to feel like I know Hallam Lake well. However, the best thing about Hallam Lake is that there is always something new to find.
Last week, after a lot of snow over the weekend, Robin and I were walking around the lake, shoveling out the platforms and bridges. Coming around the corner past the big blue spruce, I saw something exciting ahead of me.






In the fresh snow, there was an area with a bit of blood on the snow, some small downy feathers, and some wing marks in the snow! There were no tracks around the site, other than the trail, and no tunnels either-- it was a mystery! Robin and I discussed for a while what could have happened- at first we thought a large bird had gotten a weasel that had put up a fight, but without tracks or a tunnel, it couldn't be!
Here's a more close up shot of the scene:



We decided it must have been a large bird killing a small bird. A male golden eagle has been visiting our female all winter-- perhaps this was his meal?
That same morning, there were also beds on the path where a couple of elk had been spending the night.
I'll admit, I was wrong-- there are still lots of things to learn about Hallam Lake!

Best Job Ever?

Many people assume that I (well, we) have the best job ever. And that is definitely true, almost all of the time.
Today, however, it was time to clean the eagle cage. For those of you who haven't been to Hallam Lake, our resident eagle spends most of her days outside, on a grassy mound. At night she moves to a large enclosure, with a smaller wooden box inside of it that is open on one side. She spends much of her time inside of this protected space, and so it gets quite filthy. She definitely does not follow the rule of not pooping where you eat!
Cleaning the eagle cage is a pretty involved process. First, I have to get dressed for it. Luckily, we keep a spare pair of clothes just for this purpose.... Not sure how old they are, but they do the trick!
The next step is protective goggles and rubber gloves. I also like to cinch down the hood on my jacket so that no splatter gets on my hair!
The best part of cleaning the eagle cage is climbing up into the wooden box. I feel vaguely like an eagle up there, except that I'm definitely a lot bigger than she is.
Here I am in the eagle cage...









I realize this starts my blogging career off on a little bit of a gross note, but such is the life of a naturalist-- we never quite know what's in store for the day! While it really is one of the best jobs ever, today I was more or less a janitor. Can't wait to find out what tomorrow has in store!