Commentary: A loon-ey experience

Search for eagles on Beaver Lake a long time coming

We were at the lake looking for bald eagles the other day, and a bunch of loons showed up. I wonder if the bald eagles ever feel the same way?

OK, once again, backstory. Ever since she heard about it, the Lovely Mrs. Smith has been intrigued by the idea of the weekly bald eagle tours at Hobbs State Park. "Intrigued," as in what husbands say when they mean "obsessed" but aren't interested enough in sleeping on the sofa in a "non-napping while watching sports on TV" capacity to actually put it like that.

It seems a pretty sizable contingent of bald eagles likes to winter back in the channels at Beaver Lake (which makes them, literally, Snow Birds, or something like that), and since we're pretty leafless at this time of year, the good folks at Hobbs have taken to providing guided boat tours which, under the right circumstances, give you the opportunity to see our national symbol lounging around in the trees, doing whatever bald eagles do when they come south for the winter. Golf? Apparently not.

And so, in a rare occasion of paying attention long enough to figure that when someone says, repeatedly, over a several-year span that she'd like take the eagle tour, it might be a good idea to, you know, actually call and book the thing, I signed us up.

Now by all standards of booking things, this was about as simple as it gets. Actually, thanks to the very nice people at Hobbs (apparently a needless redundancy, since I've never had a bad experience at Hobbs. Or at least not a bad experience that didn't involve me suddenly remembering that when you walk down into a hollow, you're likely going to have to walk back up out of it. Which is decidedly not their fault), it wasn't as complicated as navigating your average drive-thru.

Well, OK, there weren't any fries, but I'm sure they're working on that.

Anyway, they helped me pick a good time and answer all my goofy questions (they provide life jackets, so, no, I neither get to bring nor wear my duckie floating ring and no, if there even are any species of fresh-water sharks, we don't have them in Beaver Lake), and they also patiently waited while I fished out a credit card, dropped it, misread the numbers, realized it was actually my insurance card, finally found the right one and paid the minimal fee to book two seats on what I was hoping wasn't the Ozark version of the S.S. Minnow.

It only took me two years to actually get on the boat. OK, again, not their fault. Our first date was canceled when the boat broke. Between you and me, if someone says they can't take you out on the lake in the winter because the boat might quit, take their word for it.

The second time, Mother Nature stepped in and dropped three or four inches of ice on us (although we were assured you tend to see the most eagles in the worst weather. And that the boat wasn't leaving the dock just to prove that point.). The third bite at the apple was delayed by a track meet, and by this time, I was pretty sure the folks at Hobbs were convinced we didn't really exist or that the next time I called, I'd ask them if their refrigerator was running.

But if they were surprised to see us last Saturday they had the good taste not to express it. And they did everything they could to make the trip a thoroughly pleasant experience. However, "everything they could" apparently didn't include producing many bald eagles, since warmer weather up north appears to have limited their desire to fly all the way down from Minnesota or wherever they choose to hang out all summer.

We did see plenty of loons (the birds, not us), which was pretty impressive in itself. If that had been it, we would have been just fine as we headed for home. And that's when someone spotted something circling high above us.

It was about the size of a Cessna and instead of battling the wind like the rest of the birds we saw, it was gliding, effortlessly, in lazy circles above us. I think they call that a "star turn," though I'm not sure the bird was paying us enough attention to want to show off.

And just like that, the day was made. Came for the eagles, stayed for the loons. Somehow that seems appropriate.

Commentary on 03/04/2016

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