Eagle Nest, Des Moines River, 2013.

I took this shot as we floated by the nest.  I swear this eagle is making eye contact with my camera.

We passed several eagle nests on the Des Moines river.  The sheer size of each nest is incredible...they're like a Volkswagen beetles parked on tree tops.  Each nest had a pair of eagles.  One eagle sat on the nest and one played sentry.  The sentry took their job seriously.  As we approached each nest, from a safe distance, the giant bird would fly off his/her branch and fly in circles above our heads until we were no longer "threat worthy".  I swear that the eagle made eye contact with me.  It was very intense.

A Beautiful Afternoon on the Des Moines River.

Poor Mudd-Puppy has developed a major case of cabin fever over the past two weeks. Iowa has been bitterly cold and his little dog body simply can't take the cold for longer than ten minutes at a time. I feel for the guy. It's a hard knock life and, thankfully, the weather threw him a bone today. It's over 30 degrees so he got to go on a little dog adventure.

List of things we did today in no particular order: 1. we watched eagles dive bomb the river. 2. Mudd got to ruin his Christmas sweater by rolling in a huge pile of coyote shit. 3. We saw a huge mallard migration. I think it was a rest stop on their migration. There were, literally, thousands of ducks covering the ice and open water of the Des Moines. It was pretty magnificent but hard to photograph with an awesome yet cumbersome iPad. 4. Hit some golf balls at Kyle's camp site. It's very satisfying to watch a golf ball bounce across a frozen river. 5. Made bull whips out of willow tree branches. 6. Searched, unsuccessfully, for fool's gold at the Eveland Access Boat Ramp.

All in all, it was a pretty beautiful day.