Fleeting glimpses leave lasting memories

N.S. NOKKENTVED

Originally published December 4, 2001

On a recent weekend, I took a group of house guests to Woodard Bay in hopes of seeing harbor seals and birds. We weren't disappointed.

In fact, the display was better than expected.

The bay was full of ducks, and the seals were hauled out on the log booms.

But best of all, in the top of a nearby fir tree sat a pair of bald eagles. They were so close we didn't need binoculars to watch them. The view through the spotting scope was stunning. It even brought a response from a not-easily impressed young lad, recently returned from Alaska.

We watched from far enough away that we didn't disturb them as they preened themselves.

It was one of those special moments that you sometimes encounter when you spend time in the outdoors. You can't go out looking for them. But these unexpected wildlife encounters, often just fleeting moments, keep me going outdoors.

Not long ago in Ocean Shores, while watching a small flock of seabirds less than a quarter mile away, I happened to see a peregrine falcon diving on the flock for its dinner. It missed, but it still was a rare spectacle so close.

Once while canoeing on the Snake River, I watched a mule deer swim across the river. At first I thought it was a branch drifting with the current, but then I saw it was heading across, not down, the river.

And then sometimes, ordinary occurrences conspire with chance to create extraordinary, lasting impressions.

Last winter I visited the Hagerman Wildlife Management Area, about 100 miles east of Boise, where the Snake River canyon widens into the Hagerman Valley.

This state wildlife refuge consists of a series of natural creeks and ponds and 17 manmade ponds. Most of the water comes from spring-fed Riley Creek. In this sheltered valley and with the spring water that stays at about 58 degrees year round, most of the ponds stay ice-free through the winter.

The open water makes the area popular with ducks, geese and other water birds in winter.

Biologists have counted up to 55,000 ducks and 4,000 Canada geese gathered here in recent winters. The area also is one of the few spots in southern Idaho where you can watch shorebirds as they stop to rest on their annual migrations.

In the late afternoon, as I walked the road atop one of the levees, I spotted a strange iridescent-green sheen on one of the ponds ahead. Could it be grass or reeds kept green by the unfrozen water?

I set up the spotting scope with a clear view of the pond still almost half a mile away, and zeroed in on the wondrous and mysterious phenomenon.

All I saw were ducks. Thousands of mallards. A virtual carpet of ducks at the far end of the pond.

The marvelous sheen was just the right combination of low, winter afternoon sun shining on thousands of ordinary mallard drakes with distinctive green heads.

N.S. Nokkentved covers the ordinary and not-so-ordinary in the outdoors for The Olympian. He can often be reached at 754-5445.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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