Eagle Lands                                           May 11, 2000

 Sometime in April I wrote about setting up a
camera to get a video of an eagle landing on a tree. 
At the time it seemed like an easy task since the
eagle usually went to the same spot several times a
day and at about the same time.
      Unfortunately, I mentioned my plan to Pierre and
he wanted to get involved in the project. After a
long, heated debate, I agreed to let him hold the
camera. I even turned the camera on and focused it at
the top of the tree where the eagle lands. 
      Pierre usually has trouble staying on one task,
but soon he was chewing on some of his sting weed and
everything seemed to be under control. Pierre always
chews rather than smokes when there is a fire danger
in the bush.) About every two hours I would go and put
a new tape in for him. Three days, and countless
tapes later, things clicked for Pierre. The eagle
landed.
      The whole thing was captured on tape and five
seconds of the action can be downloaded on your
computer if you are willing to take four minutes of
your computer's time to download this event. (Please
don't do this if you are at work. This is my attempt
to keep this world productive.)
      Pierre was so proud of himself and wanted to be
rewarded for his efforts. It was close to Easter and
he wanted to go to Duluth, Minnesota to see his mother
and a brother and a sister who will still talk to him.
      A friend of Pierre's, Jim Dingle, also suggested
that Pierre should get a "new wardrobe" in Duluth.
(The idea of connecting the words "new", "wardrobe",
"Pierre" in the same book is crazy enough. But when I
think of combining those words in the same sentence
with "Jim Dingle", the Northwest Angle's duct tape
fashion designer, I started thinking maybe I had
inhaled too much of Pierre's second hand sting weed
smoke during the long winter.
      Pierre had heard that there was a St. Vincent de
Paul Shop in Duluth. Since he was a religious person
he thought it would be a good place to shop for
clothes since he wanted to keep his money in the
church, yet didn't want to play any more bingo.
      After another long, and heated debate, I agreed
go with him in his truck. 
     Next time I will use a tripod when making a
wildlife video. 

Eagle Watcher