Wind, Sunshine, and Bald Eagles

 We finally got some steady sunshine back today. Yesterday was fairly sunny, too, but how about that wind in the afternoon? I was working at the Danville Historical Society with Patty Conly, and we ate lunch on the sun porch there and watched the leaves being peeled off the trees near the church. There were literally clouds of them going by the windows and down the driveway. Here at my house, most of the leaves are off the trees and it looks like November already; but the sunshine today was a welcome relief and reminded me there could still be some nice days ahead before snow comes.

The LaPrades and the Rouleaus left today, so West Shore Road is beginning to look very lonely. Of course, there are several year -around residents there like Diane Rossi, Kent and Cherise Mason, Shelly Walker and Bob and Dotty Noyes - so it isn't completely deserted!

I am very happy to let people know that Patty and I have finished indexing a total of thirty chapters of the West Danville history book! Actually, all but the two (very large) Joe's Pond chapters - one chapter is about Joe's Pond's history and the other is about Joe's Pond Association's history. We have been putting in full days at the historical society house this week in order to accomplish this, and today we finished two short chapters on the phone - Patty at her house and me here at mine. We put the phones on speaker mode and went through the copies displayed on our computers. It is a painstaking process that involves highlighting names of people, places and/or other terms that we think will be of interest to anyone using the book for research, or just for people looking for family names, etc. By working together, we can reach agreement quickly, making the process much more efficient than each of us doing it separately and then comparing. We are definitely going to have a finished product very soon.

I enjoyed a little time working outdoors this afternoon. I had a few bulbs that needed to be put in the ground, and got them done. I am enjoying watching my pond fill with all the rain we've had recently. I had actually turned off the water coming in from an unused spring above the house until today, but the pond has come up quite quickly without it. I turned it back on today - I'd like the pond to be full, or close to it, by the time it freezes over.

On my way home last night, as I left West Danville, I spotted an eagle heading up the pond from the hill behind Marcel Perreault's. The bird seemed to have been perched in a tree just above Marcel's. According to the Audubon website, bald eagles migrate south when the ponds begin to freeze. They need open water as they like a primarily fish diet. So they  move south in the fall according to freeze dates, returning in the spring as lakes and ponds open up. It's also interesting that they don't fly when there is no wind. They use the wind to soar and conserve energy, and can cover about 100 miles in a day on average, and they travel in the daytime. They do usually migrate in groups, but not as a flock like geese do. They fly in lines sometimes 20 to 30 miles long, and can fly at speeds of about 30 mph, but will only go as far as they need to in order to obtain food. I don't expect I'll have any bald eagles at my pond! Unless they eat frogs! I don't plan to put any fish in the pond, at least, not right away. I'll have to think about it. 

Stay happy and healthy!