Sharing Birding Contest Honorable Mention
It was Friday. Finally the day had arrived! At 6:40 a.m. Grandma Elsasser arrived and picked up Emma and me. We were off to see Bald Eagles at a refuge by the Mississippi River, and I could hardly wait! The thought of those majestic birds excited me greatly! I was going to see hundreds of eagles. I might even see a nest or two…
As soon as we hopped into the car, I was handed the GPS and told my job was to navigate. Yes! I thought. The last time I did this I only got us lost once. How bad can I do?
Grandma told me, “I do not do well with, ‘Your turn is right there!’ when I’m going 70 miles an hour. Give me a little more notice like, ‘Turn left at the next stop sign,’ or something like that.”
As you may have heard it said, history repeats itself. True to the old saying and to my past, I got us on the wrong road within ten minutes of leaving the house. Well, we got to make use of the saying, “An optimist is someone who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.” Anyhow, we survived the wrong turn and soon got back onto the road we were supposed to be on to start with.
Before long, the terrain began changing. Smooth land and fields gave way to beautiful hills and valleys. Plentiful cattle prompted the song, “He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine…” Budding trees, vibrant grass, flitting birds…“Your turn is right…there! Oops…back there!”
I tried to pass on the job of navigating, at which I was failing miserably, to my older sister in the back seat, but Grandma wouldn’t hear of it.
“Oh no,” she interjected, “we’ll make a navigator out of you yet!”
So I tried to pay a little more attention to the GPS and a little less attention to the scenery around me. At least I would try to know how soon the next turn was before it was only 50 feet (15 m) ahead of us.
After that, my navigation skills strengthened slightly. At least we didn’t get lost anymore. Well, not exactly. We finally reached our destination—did I say destination? I guess I can hardly call it that. It was a driveway with a car in it and a house. What on earth? was the question swirling around in all of our heads. Maybe the GPS is wrong, we thought, so we started driving around. The only place we thought it was possible for the refuge to be had many signs that stated:
PRIVATE PROPERTY
Trespassers will be prosecuted
to the full extent of the law.
We drove to a nearby gas station, hoping to find someone who knew the area well enough to tell us where we could find our eagles! When we showed the lady at the cash register our map and described what we were looking for, she turned her head to one side and looked at us sort of funny. That was not a good sign. Surely she would know about this great refuge so close to her. Wouldn’t she?
Apparently not. Did it even exist? Finally we found some men on lawn mowers who knew what they were talking about! Yay! Maybe we would get to see our feathered friends after all!? We described to them what we were looking for, and they didn’t look at us like we were crazy! That was a good sign.
But then… “Oh yeah, the Elton E. Fawks Bald Eagle Refuge Nature Preserve. It is not open. The eagles are gone for the season.”
Defeat. No eagles? No big beautiful bald birds? Gone? Oh no! Our trip and my valiant navigation efforts would all have been in vain…if my grandma were like some people. But defeat was not in her vocabulary.
“We WILL see birds yet! Eagles, maybe not, but instead of being beaten down, we shall redirect…” And before long, we were standing by a huge man-made water dam by the mighty Mississippi watching pelicans. Instead of hundreds of eagles, we saw hundreds of pelicans. We got photos, including some of them fishing for lunch. By the end of the day, we had seen a Trumpeter Swan, egrets, hundreds of pelicans, and ducks. We even got to see two eagles and an eagle nest! It was so amazing and reflecting of God our wonderful creator. And it was fun even if we didn’t get to see all the eagles we’d planned on.
