Finally Back To Normal

Frank’s Essay - The Eagles Are Back

There is an eagle’s nest straight across from our cabin on the Pend Oreille River. It is a wide part in the river, and it has been my habit for several years to set up a spotting scope in order to watch the eagles as they repair the nest, lay their eggs, and raise their brood. Last Spring was rainy which is good for the farmers but bad for young, flightless birds. One morning in June, I checked my scope and the birds were gone! I don’t know what happened. I just know they weren’t there, and the world was out of balance. I didn’t have the birds to watch as they fledged, left the nest and finally took off on their own. The world just wasn’t right.

The off-balance feeling followed me throughout the year. Various health problems, family issues, things that used to be easy became complicated and difficult. I was reminded of the feeling I had after Dad passed away. My parents were married for 58 years, and it wasn’t right for Mom to be alone. Four years later when Mom passed, I flew home from Japan to conduct the funeral. I needed some quiet time, so I walked east through what had been our farm and was now suburbia. The creek where we used to play had become an overgrown green belt. Everything had changed. I couldn’t recognize the once familiar bends of the stream, and I was a little lost until I saw the old sycamore tree that had been there for at least a century. I was able to use the tree as a landmark to determine where I was. It dawned on me that Mom was no longer alone. She was with Dad, and the world was back in balance.

On election day 1968, I went hunting with a bunch of friends in the mountains north of Newport. It was new country to me, but it was a beautiful day, so I never hesitated when my more experienced friend told me to walk down the slope and up the other side, where I would find a trail leading back to the truck. I got to the bottom when a dense fog settled on the valley. I never found the trail at the top of the ridge, and was turned around too much to try to go back. I didn’t know where I was. I waited for a couple hours then decided staying in one place wasn’t the answer. I had to keep moving forward. I knew if I went downhill long enough I would eventually come to the river. Just before dark, I saw a fresh tire track and the lost feeling went away. The world was back in balance. I followed the track to a farm house, and the farmer took me into town.

There have been other times in my life when circumstances seemed to throw me a curve, and the world went out of kilter. I don’t know why it hit me so hard when the eagles disappeared, but it did. I saw a pair yesterday performing their aerial mating dance and was hopeful they were our eagles instead of one of the other pairs up and down the river. Then this morning I saw a white spot in the snow-covered nest that I thought was different. When I looked through my binoculars, I could plainly see both eagles. I set up my spotting scope and once again I will watch as they hatch and grow to be lords of the sky. The world is back in balance.

Frank Watson is a retired Air Force Colonel and long-time resident of Eastern Washington. He has been a free-lance columnist for over 20 years.