Family Home Evening the 21st Century Way

Family spread across the country and you want to keep those bonds strong despite the distance? Connect the high-tech way!

We had Family Home Evening Monday evening with Kyle and his family. In honor of Pioneer Day, Kyle asked Craig and me to share our conversion stories with Braden, Addie, and Corinne since we are the "pioneers" of our family.

Then the kids asked us a couple of questions and we chatted a little bit.

Sure hope we do this again, and maybe with our other children's families.

Linda, is this a Joke??

Every year our school has a theme, and the theme for the upcoming year is "wild things", a zoo theme. (Not the kids, I hope!!)

So, I was a bit perplexed when I received this email from my principal, Linda Fields.

All,

Please see the attached picture of the “wild thing” currently visiting Hershey.  It is a blue tailed lizard that is quite harmless.  We would love to help him find his way back to the wild.  Let us know if you see him and we will return him to his natural habitat.

Chief Zoo Keeper

Linda Fields

Principal

Hershey Elementary

7521 East 300 North

Lafayette, Indiana  47905

(765) 269-8281

My initial thought was that she had planned some sort of treasure hunt in the building for us, a fun idea to begin the school year.

Except that, she attached this picture...

Oh my goodness, there really is a lizard on the loose in the building!!

Actually, it is ablue tailed skink (a juvenile; you can tell because the tail is still blue.) They are found in woodland habitats.

The blue tailed skink's habitat.

Another photo of one.

I hope I find it - I love wildlife! And I love how Linda signed her email.

Are We There Yet?

Almost!!

I am just a few miles away from having ridden 3,000 miles on my bike!

Actually, I have ridden many more than that, but this is since I began riding seriously in 2001. (I used to do two miles a day delivering newspapers, seven days a week. I did that for five or six years before I began recording my rides.) Back when I became serious about my riding, I grabbed one of the kid's old piano practice notebooks and used that to record my rides.

Each year begins with an outline of what I want to achieve that year as a cyclist as well as the total mileage for the year.

That 1,000 miles in 2005 was more than I could do, but I made it almost halfway!

This is what the logbook looks like inside:

Each line represents a day, with the date, day, mileage on the odometer, cumulative mileage from past rides, and how much I rode that day.

I LOVE riding my bike; it's the only exercise I do with a smile on my face. I fell out of habit last year, and have missed most of this summer - it wasn't even on my radar to do until the other day when I walked past my bike in the garage and realized that I needed to get going. (Summers are when I get the bulk of my riding in. Too tired and a lack of time during the school year.)

Now I track my rides on my iPhone through the app, MapMyRide.

While I miss having a notebook filled with rides that have been logged, I like how this one actually creates maps of my rides, averages my speed, allows me to write comments, and logs other things that I'd like to know. Even short rides like these chip away at the 3,000 mile goal!

So, I am back in the saddle again.

My New Ride!

I have never picked out a car before. Just haven't been interested. For years I drove Craig's used church cars, and then we bought two Ford Tauruses that I drove until now. I couldn't care less about them aside from the fact that they got me from here to there, although I had expressed my wish a time or two to choose a car that I wanted, not just something that was a hand me down or safe to drive.

I got my wish yesterday.

With Craig's retirement, we lost his church car and needed to buy something. Since he is going to take my Taurus, I got to make the choice for the new ride. Curt offered to help us find something, and he really came through. I gave him some ideas as to what I wanted, and he went to work. On Wednesday, Craig and I picked him up (along with Ian) and headed over to Auto Express on 350.

Such a neat place - no salespeople following you around, and keys are in every car. You simply walk around, choose one, pop the magnetic license on it, and go for a test drive!

 I test drove five or six cars. (See Curt in the background?)

A Nissan Altima (loved that one), a Chevy Cruze, a Hyundai Sonata, a Honda Accord, and a Toyota Avalon. 

Then I tried this Ford Fusion.

And was sold!

It's a very quiet ride, with leather interior, seat warmers, tinted windows, a tight turning radius, power seats, and on and on. 

I haven't been so excited about a vehicle since I bought my last horse trailer!

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Put a free meal out in your yard, and you never know just who will show up to dinner. (No, not Sidney Poitier.) I was sitting in the living room yesterday and saw a large bird land on the hummingbird feeder in the front yard. 

 Grabbing my iPhone, I began snapping pictures.

Hopeful that the bird would not see me through the window as I approached, I carefully stepped closer for a better view.

 Perfect! I can see the shape of the beak now.

What kind of bird was it that was helping itself to the hummingbirds' nectar?

A female rose-breasted grosbeak.

Advice from My Children

Last year, I decided I would join my family in their love of football. I figured it was best to start small and local, so I followed Purdue's college team from the beginning of training camp in August to the bitter end in November. It was a lousy season with Purdue going 1-11, but I learned a lot about the game.

(Attending the West Lafayette High School games in the fall doesn't count as learning about football - I go for the social aspects of being with Craig and enjoy sitting outside on lovely fall nights!)

This year, my goal is to learn about it by following a pro team. My family will tell you that I like the Colts and Broncos because their mascots are horse-related (which is true), but I figured I should find a team that I liked for football reasons, not mascot ones.

Asking my kids which teams they followed seemed like a good idea so I sent them all a quick text (except for Curt; I asked him in person.) Their initial responses were remarkable similar.

Me: What is your favorite NFL team?

Sarah: I'm still my father's daughter. (Which means she roots for the Packers.)

Jessica: I don't really have one. Andrew likes the Seahawks so I have a Seahawks jersy. Why do you ask?

Kyle: I don't know that I have one. Why do you ask?

Lisa: Hmmmm. I would have to say Green Bay. Why?

Curt: The Patriots. Why do you ask?

Cole: The Jets. Why?

I was taken aback that they wondered why I wanted to know. But, I haven't traditionally been a follower of football, especially NFL, so perhaps that was a reasonable response and I should have clarified why I was asking. So I did.

Me: I started following college football last year and want to pick an NFL team for this year.

Jessica: I much prefer college myself. I don't really follow NFL. Especially since they play on Sundays and we try not to watch TV on Sundays.

Kyle: Ah. Well, I used to like the Dolphins (Starter jacket). And EverBank's name is on the Jaguar's field. Still don't follow them, though.

Lisa: Haha. Nice. I prefer college over NFL, though.

And a couple of them even gave me some very welcome advice!

Jessica: I would recommend the Colts if you want to get into the NFL. There is a local connection, probably a lot of fans in your area so you can talk to other people about the team. And they are a good team. Broncos are fun to watch as well. Plus you can connect with Sarah's family and they have Peyton Manning.

Curt: Well, you really ought to follow the Colts. They're more local and you will be able to read more coverage about them around here. Plus, you will be able to talk to your friends who probably are Colts fans.

Cole: Oh, don't pick the Jets! It's a terrible emotional roller coaster. Go with the Packers!

What's interesting to me is that I had three teams in mind, and my children recommended all three: Colts, Packers, and Broncos!

So then I took a look at each team that my children had mentioned, beginning with the Colts.

Hmmm. Local and horse related. But you know what? It has always bothered me that the nail placement on the horseshoe is wrong. Silly, perhaps, but it does. They should look like this:

But I am not sure that that is enough to rule them out (even though it really does bother me - the horse would go lame!)

What about the Broncos? Sarah and Todd live in their  home city, a nice plus.

And I really like the stylized orange and blue horse head. And, Anne Judge-Wegener, the "Girl on a Horse" (I say that lightly because she is 56 years old) went to school with me and graduated from Harrison. So there *is* a local connection of some sort.

My Dad liked the Packers, and Craig certainly does.

But aside from that, I really don't feel a pull to follow them, so I'm going to cross them off.

Which leaves the Colts and the Broncos.

The two horse-related ones I already was inclined to root for.

Interesting that the advice from my children led me right back to where I began!

Other Preservice Teachers I've Mentored

About a week ago, I blogged about the student teachers I have had and then said I would do another entry about the other preservice teachers I have mentored. There were more than I thought, and may even be more than this - I have a file of letters of recommendations which is how I compiled this list. Otherwise, I would not have remembered any of them.

Except for one.

 Jessica Windsor.

A few weeks after taking over the 2/3 classroom at Hershey in the fall of 2006, I got a letter from Purdue, thanking me for signing up to take a Purdue Block student. Apparently Judy Riley, the teacher who had resigned five weeks into the school year, had signed up to take one, and now I was stuck and had to fulfill that agreement.

But it turned out to be a wonderful experience, and Jessica is my favorite of all. She was interested in teaching gifted and talented, and so she jumped right into teaching. Although she was a Block student (they come twice a week for two hours) and not a full time student teacher, she still spent a good amount of time working with kids, helping me, asking questions, and discussing aspects of gifted education with me.

We became very good friends in addition to mentor/student, and Jessica even came the following year to my summer learning trip at the Veterans Home and helped me with that. When she did her formal student teaching, I acted as a resource for her, and did the same again when she worked on her gifted/talented licensure. She was president of the Purdue Education Students Organization and asked me to come and speak to their group and then teach a seminar on campus in December, 2009.

Jessica even subbed for me for three weeks when I had my first knee replacement in December, 2010. I never worried about the kids - I knew they would have a good experience with Miss Windsor! 

Jessica was hired by the Elkhart school system in the summer of 2011 to teach 2/3 gifted and talented, and she taught there until the spring of 2013 when she resigned because her fiance, Kevin, had finished his studies at Purdue and taken a job in Washington State. 

She subbed all last year and then was hired this June to teach 2nd grade High Ability. No doubt she will be fabulous!

Another one that I remember is Shae Richert in the fall 2006 at Cumberland Elementary. I was not her mentor teacher; I worked at Cumberland for three weeks as an aide and then was hired away to teach at Hershey. But the kindergarten teacher in the class that Shae and I were in together was getting ready to retire, and she sat behind her desk all day, turning the running of the classroom completely over to Shae and giving her very little guidance. (Often she would leave the classroom and be gone long stretches of time!)

Shae Richert Zimmerman

Knowing that I was a teacher, Shae began asking me for guidance and suggestions. I was hesitant to do an end-run around the mentor teacher, but Shae needed help. So, I offered suggestions, encouraged, and gave her feedback. After I left Cumberland for Hershey, we remained in contact, and she asked me to write her a letter of recommendation (which I did). TSC wisely snapped her up, and she is teaching kindergarten at Woodland Elementary.

I ran into her this summer at JoAnn's Fabrics; she recognized me before I did her, but we had a chance to catch up and I got to meet her two kids.

And then there are the rest of my preservice teachers...

I am so foggy about these other people. I could find a couple of them on Facebook and recognized their faces, but that is about it.

~ Lisa Kallenback, fall 2005, Yankee Ridge

~ Laura Christenberry, spring 2008, Hershey

~ Allison Pratt, spring 2009, Hershey

~ Kathy Irwin, spring 2012, Hershey

I don't know where these women are now, although I heard Kathy Irwin was hired to teach in Ohio.

Finally, in 2004 or so, Eastern Illinois University asked me to take two gals who had completed their student teaching but needed a week's observation in a multicultural class to comply with the state's requirements for licensing. I agreed, and it was a DISASTER! The two girls just wanted to sit at the back of the room and talk to each other, and they were very disengaged from the kids. Even worse, they did not show up every day as they were supposed to. I contacted their supervisor, but she did nothing about it.

The final straw came when the girls gave me their time sheets to sign at the end of their time with me. They had been falsified - the girls had listed themselves as present on the days they had missed. I refused to sign the forms since they had not been there on days they'd documented that they had. They were quite unhappy with me, and, I suspect, forged my signature after leaving Yankee Ridge. I again emailed their supervisor, but she did not respond.

Due to that experience, I did not take any more EIU students.

Trinity's Door Decorations

Two years ago, Trinity went to a model horse show with me in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and won a first place ribbon with her little Quarter Horse foal, qualifying it for the North American Championships (NAN) in Kentucky this month. 

The green card she is holding is her qualifying card for NAN. (The ribbon really is blue, but the lighting has made it look different.)

Since her model didn't get to go, I sent Trinity one of my Top Ten awards. She hung it on her bedroom door and texted me a picture.

Maybe next time she'll be able to come along and show at NAN. In the meantime, she is enjoying her beautiful rosette.

A Favorite Family

Those kiddos who were with me in the original 2/3 classroom and then in the 4/5 ended up having me as their teacher for three years. As you might imagine, you know each other really well at the end of those three years, even more so if a sibling comes through the program afterward. Thus I ended up with some families whose kids I taught for five years!

One of my favorites is the Loftus family. Caroline was a three year student, and her sister, Kathleen, a two year one. The girls are both hard workers and honest, kind, and respectful. Never, ever were they a problem in my class!

Every summer for the past three years, we have gotten together to catch up over lunch or ice cream. We've also had several informal lunches before that, such as when I had my knee replaced in 2010 and they brought a picnic lunch to my house. Last night we met at the west side Silver Dipper and chatted for two and a half hours!

Caroline, me, Kim, Kathleen

Kathleen is generally the more talkative of the two girls, but last night Caroline was positively garrulous.  And witty! I laughed and laughed at her quips and humor. She will be a junior at Harrison, and is taking all advanced classes and has a perfect 4.0 GPA. She just scored a perfect on the ECA Language Arts test, too! (ECA stands for End of Course Assessment.)

No slouch in the classroom herself, Kathleen scored a perfect on the 8th grade ISTEP Math test. And she, too, will be taking AP classes at Harrison this fall.

(Note: the family does not brag about grades and, in fact, has a very healthy and reasonable outlook on academics. I asked how school was going for them, and that is when they told me about the perfect scores.)

One of the best parts of the evening for me was when the girls began talking about Classics and the books they'd read as part of the Classic Project while in my classroom. Caroline said she thought it was one of the best things about my classroom and that it had really helped her as she progressed through school, including her writing assignments. Kathleen agreed, and we had a lovely chat about books. I wrote the Classics Project unit and it is a big part of our classroom, so to receive feedback on it like that, well, I was pretty happy.

(I nearly lost the ability to teach the Classics in 2012. Fortunately, I have a wise principal who sees the bigger picture and she supported me in my quest to keep the Classics Project. See this blog entry for the story.)

The girls also caught me up on the other kids who were in my class with them, showed me pictures of their new kitty, Beyonce, and we wrapped up with some pictures and plans to meet again next summer. 

I am so lucky to have had the privilege of working with this family. Truly, one of the best of the best!

"I've got the Book"

This is Marianna, my friend and the woman who has been cutting and coloring my hair since 2009.

 She's a devout Catholic and a friend of the LDS Church as well. We have some wonderful discussions when I am in her chair!

Today, I thought she looked like one of the singers from The 60s Motown girl group, The Shirelles. Look at the girl on the top...

... and then look at Marianna again. See the resemblance?

I sure do!

Anyway, Marianna is very, very strong in her faith and isn't afraid to share the gospel or to stand up to someone who might be critical of her religion. Today as she worked her magic on my hair, she told me a story about just that which happened last week.

She'd stopped at a garage sale and as she was looking through the things on the tables, the owner of the home and another woman began criticizing churches, particularly the the Catholic Church. Naturally, Marianna jumped right in to defend her faith.

The homeowner was a member of a fundamentalist group, and she was especially insistent that Marianna was being led by the devil who was disguised as the Lamb of God. Neither would back down from their stances, and the conversation escalated with the two woman on one side and Marianna on the other.

Finally, the homeowner pulled out a religious tract from her faith and offered it to Marianna, saying, "Read this - it has parts of the Bible in it."

Marianna's response?

"I've got the book!"

I smiled when she shared that, but the more I thought about it, the more profound it seemed to be. 

We "have the book(s)" - the Bible, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. The words of living prophets twice a year at General Conference. Wonderful opportunities to hear our leaders year round via the church's web site and social media.

All those work together for our good, and if we are wise, we will use them together as intended, not picking them apart to suit other purposes.

We've got the book(s)!

A Wrap Around Meeting

I was invited to attend a wrap around meeting for a student this evening. That's a meeting of people who form a support group for someone experiencing extreme difficulties coping with life - in this case, a student  of mine who has been in a residential facility since January.

As of July 3 she is home and adjusting to life with her family again. Twelve adults, including her parents, me, Linda Fields (Hershey's principal), her pastor, and some family members gathered together to help her identify goals that will help her overcome her struggles and strategies to achieve those goals.

I am so glad I went - I love this girl and she has stayed in contact with me by phoning me occasionally from the facility. Linda and I have worked together to plan for this coming school year and to help the girl adjust to being back in school. (It is interesting to note that we never saw any of the anger issues the student has in the classroom or at school. Every explosion and blow-up happened at home. Linda believes strongly that school was her "safe place" and that is why the problems were always at home.)

The meeting was interesting. I am not a member of this family, but I was made privy to the inner workings of it as all their problems were plainly laid out before the support group. We worked for two hours, talking, discussing, thinking, before we were done.

To me, the outsider to the family, it seemed as though the strategies that were put in place really did not address the underlying issue - a profound unhappiness and anger about something that leads to out of control behavior.

And it was almost as though we are putting a bandaid on a minor cut while internal hemorrhaging is happening unseen with the patient in grave danger as a result.

I hope my feelings are wrong.

My Student Teachers

I have been blessed to have had some high quality student teachers. I no longer mentor a full-time student teacher anymore - a gifted classroom is structured and taught so differently from a general education one,  I feel it's better that I remain in charge of my students' learning. (I have mentored Purdue's Block students; another blog post in the future will be about them.)

At Yankee Ridge, however, I was teaching a gen ed classroom, and so I accepted several student teachers. A good one can be a REAL help (divide and conquer) plus, the University of Illinois gave mentor teachers a tuition waiver for hosting a student teacher. Between that and scholarships, my Masters degree was free.

But, even the best student teacher is still new to the profession and has things to learn, so I only took one a year if I agreed to host one at all. I did not feel it fair for my class to have two student teachers a year, although there were teachers who disagreed with that philosophy and felt the extra set of hands in the classroom was worth the inexperience.

I am still in contact with all these former student teachers (except for one), and it has been fun to follow their careers.

 Melissa Wingate Willis

Melissa was my very first student teacher in the fall of 2001 and joined me just a few weeks after the twin towers fell on 9/11. Melissa was from Champaign and thus a local gal. She was a VERY hard worker, and one who cared deeply about the kids. She's been teaching at Lincoln Trails Elementary in Mahomet, Illinois (her principal is my dear friend and a former Yankee Ridge special ed teacher, Christine Northrup.) Melissa is now married, a mom, and recently finished her librarian's degree. She has just switched assignments in her building to be the new librarian at Lincoln Trails.

 Amanda Newport Leinhardt

Amanda is from Champaign and was a swimmer (her dad was the men's swim coach at the U of I.) I never, EVER saw this gal without a smile on her face, even when she was struggling with a lesson going awry! Amanda was in her take-over when I had to have my hip replaced (she knew about that before being placed with me and wanted to have me mentor her anyway) and she did a tremendous job coping with my absence and the substitute teacher who covered for me. 

Surprisingly, she had a difficult time getting hired. (Amanda was top notch!) That happens sometimes, and she and her husband were rather nomadic as he worked to get himself established as a pastor - that didn't help her find employment. They moved several times and she was never hired until they came back to Champaign. She's teaching kindergarten at Kenwood Elementary in Champaign. 

 Sara Ryder Tsioles

Sara was my last student teacher and with me in the spring of 2006 at Yankee Ridge. We also participated in the same University of Illinois graduation ceremony - she got her B.S. and I got my M.Ed! We took a picture together at graduation in our caps and gowns. Now she's a science teacher at The Center for the Gifted in Chicago, Illinois. 

Another hard worker, Sara was very shy and unaware that one of the male aides at Yankee Ridge had a terrific crush on her. (I still remember that his jaw dropped when he first saw her! He was smitten!) But Jason was shy, too, and although he eventually worked his courage up to ask her out, they didn't click.

Last is a gal who, sadly, should never have made it to the student teaching phase of her college education.

C.E. (Although this blog is private, I am not writing her name.)

She was clueless about how to work with kids. The first week she was with me, she took refuge behind my desk, kneeling and crying because she did not know what to do with them. Another time, she simply walked out of the class and went home because she said she needed a break. She shared pictures of herself drinking beer and holding her middle finger up. (I grabbed those right away and made her take them home.)

I contacted the U of I Education department that first week with my concerns. I was told to give C three more weeks and then give them an update. She had not improved by then, but when I again contacted the U of I, I was told that since she was so close to her graduation, there was nothing they could do. Needless to say, I was not happy with that, and I suspected that she would not get a classroom.

I was right - C could not find a job. The last time I spoke with her, she was working in a factory. I recently found her on Facebook, and she still does not have a classroom ten plus years later. She is working as an aide at a junior high in Normal and coaching 8th grade girls track.

C was very much an exception to the rule when it came to the quality of student teachers I have been blessed to work with.  Melissa, Amanda, and Sara were top notch and now are making a difference in students' lives on a daily basis. I am pleased to have been a part of their teacher training, and proud of them for what they have accomplished.

Even nicer to now call them colleagues and friends.

Barn Swallows

For the third year in a row, we have barn swallows raising a brood in the arch of our front porch. We love watching them incubate and then raise the babies, and if the porch gets a little messy, well, we just get the ice scraper and scrape it off. The birds are only there for about a month, start to finish, so it's not too bad. (Besides, we never use the front door - we come in through the garage!)

Bits of egg were found on the porch on the 4th of July, so I knew the babies were hatching.

We have three nestlings.

It's hard to tell as I can't get a really good shot (the parents and a third adult swallow always circle and scream when I go outside with my camera) but the edge of the babies' beaks are outlined in yellow. It's a very comical look.

A parent swoops in with some food and plops it into a baby's mouth.

Judging by the way the babies are beginning to boldly perch on the edges of the nest, I suspect they will fledge very soon.

It's been fun watching them; I sure hope they return next year and raise another brood!

We Love You, Brother I!

One night during Groompa Camp, Lisa, Sarah, and I were up late at the dining room table playing games while Craig was out making a grocery run. We'd begun playing while it was still light out, but as night had fallen and the game continued, we'd not bothered to close the blinds in the living and dining room.

As Craig came into the kitchen to deposit his grocery bags, he asked, "Don't you see what's happening on the front lawn? All those people out there? They're heart-attacking us; didn't you see them??"

Um, no, we didn't. Call us intense gamers, I guess, or blame it on the way the light reflects on the windows making it tough to see what's happening in the darkness just a few feet away, but we were clueless to all the activity happening practically under our noses.

A bunch of Craig's students were sticking plastic forks impaled with either candy or a note into our front lawn. It's called heart-attacking - to show someone you care about them by surprising them in some way such as paper hearts and notes plastered to a door or something else (in our case, forks, notes, and candy).

I didn't get a picture of the lawn the next morning before Craig and Trinity pulled all the forks up, but I did get a photo of the notes et al.

I often write about how wonderful my students are; looks like Craig's are equally so!

Trinity's Surprise

I've got sweet grandchildren, every one of 'em. No doubt about that! And sometimes they do or leave a little something that shows just how wonderful they are.

Take, for example, Trinity.

 A.k.a. Horseyreader. She's definitely horsey like her grandmama! Just this last visit, she not only helped me wrangle a loose horse back to where it belonged, she also took charge of helping her cousins feed carrots and candy canes to Abby and Diablo.

She has a tender heart, too. She slept in my office while she was here for Groompa Camp, and I found this on my desk after she left for home.

Thanks, Trinity! It's now hanging in my office so I can enjoy it. I think of you every time I look at it.

The Decorah Eagles

Most bird lovers know about the Decorah eagles and the eagle cam that is on their nest which allows viewers to watch a pair of eagles raise their babies year after year. I began watching them four years ago in 2011.

Mom and Dad, as they are called, have been together seven or eight years. Dad is older, around 14 or 15, and Mom a couple of years younger. They are considered to be a very successful pair as the Raptor Resource Project (RRP) has documented 20 eaglets from the pair. (The first camera was installed in 2009.) The babies are labeled with a prefix of "D" for Decorah and then a number in hatching order. This year's nestlings were D18, D19, and D20.

It has been a tough year for the eagle parents, and began with one of the harshest winters on record.

I took this screen shot in February - it was -20 degrees Farenheit and Mom was incubating eggs!

Three eaglets hatched and were raised to fledgling state, and that's when things went awry. Due to heavy gnats and biting flies this year, the babies left the nest early, probably before they were really ready. Almost immediately, the trouble began.

Reports began coming in that a baby eagle was in the middle of a road in the Decorah area. Area authorities stopped traffic and contacted the RRP and Bob Anderson, the head of the eagle project and lead researcher. He rescued D19, a female, from the road and took her home overnight, fed her some fish, and then released her. She has since taken to living on a mulch pile in the Decorah recycling yard and is doing well. 

Mom and Dad found her and are bringing her food.

(Photo taken by George Barrer.)

There was no sign of the other two babies, so Bob and some volunteers fanned out to look for them. Soon they found D20 in a creek.

That's Bob Anderson in the white hat, rescuing him.

The man with him is a volunteer from SOAR, an organization in Minnesota that rehabilitates injured birds and releases them into the wild.

They carried D20 to safety and, upon examination, discovered that he had a broken wing. He's been taken to SOAR's facility in Minnesota and had surgery to pin the pieces together. It is hoped that the eagle will be able to return to the wild in a year or so.

And then there is D18, the oldest. Bob was able to capture him briefly and fit him with a transmitter as part of the research project, and that has enabled us to know just what happened. Sadly, D20 encountered a high voltage power line and was electrocuted a week or so after fledging.

I didn't cry until RRP posted this picture of him as a hatchling with his mother.

A life cut short due to a terrible accident. 

D18 on the mulch pile. 

(Photo from RRP/Decorah Eagles Facebook archives.)

D18 is the third known eaglet from this pair of parents to have been electrocuted - D12 and D14 also died in a similar manner.

To sum up:

D18 - male, electrocuted/dead

D19 - female, found on road, living on mulch pile, doing well

D20 - male, broken wing, rescued in creek, surgery and recuperating at SOAR

One of their offspring is doing well, and with luck, a second one will make it and be released into the wild. 

Life in the wild is tough.