Virgin Flight

This morning while at the jobsite, my attention was diverted from the 20′ roof rafters to a pair of juvenile seagulls. They were squawking so loud, that I heard them over the generator. Judging from the birds’ noise, and the clumsy flight over the river, I’m fairly certain that it was their first (successful) flight. Two mature gulls were circling high overhead, and the two chicks were all over the air above the Chena. At times they seemed to have this flight thing licked, then suddenly the dirt colored gulls would free fall towards the water, and at the last possible second regain the use of their wings to climb unsteadily upward. Twice one of the gulls seemed to try to save face and simply plopped into the water, as if to say: “I meant to land here, I’m a seagull afterall”, but then the river’s current would take it downstream & away from the other gulls & the intense, panic squawking would start up again. Then all the birds would suddenly be screeching. I did take some pictures, but it was so dark today with heavily overcast skies, that I’m sure they are not worth uploading.

At one point today, I was fighting a particularly wet 20′ rafter up to the second floor, when I noticed a moose on the other side of the river. It’s ears were straight up in the air, and it’s eyes were obviously fixated on me. I guess the young moose had never heard words like that before.