Along the Susquehanna

How lucky we are that our school and town are nested within the Susquehanna Watershed.

Yesterday, we walked along the river. After a week and a half of freezing temperatures, a shelf of ice reaching out fifty feet from shore scallops the long inside curve of the river. Ice floes and nervous squads of geese coast down the gray open corridor of water.

At 100-foot intervals along the the very brink of the shelf-ice we spied the fresh carcasses of three very large carp (like 10-12 pounds) recently caught and dined on by an eagle. The raptors were not present, only the inquisitive crows and the footprints of coyotes curious for a free meal.

Today we returned to the scene to find the carcasses gone, but three bald eagles roosting in the silver maples across the river; two mature ones with snow-white heads and tails, and one immature one (equally large) soaring fearlessly with mottled feathers and no white showing! They looked spectacular through the binoculars with a dusting of snow shaking down between us.

Somehow, I suspect today's Super Bowl is going to have a hard time impressing me with power, speed, drama, and a sense of spectacle.