Hiking At The Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery, Morehead, Kentucky, August 2, 2025

After attending the Artisans Harvest event in West Liberty, Kentucky, yesterday, we decided to travel to the Minor E. Clark Fish Hatchery so I could get in a hike. I parked Candice in the van in the shade and began my hike. Shortly after I started hiking, I met a local man, (recently relocated to Kentucky from elsewhere) who happens to be a biologist employed in a federal government job. He also happens to be a very experienced birder and we struck up a conversation. I am choosing not to name him in light of the extremely oppresive and destructive nature of what is happening to thousands of federal employees all over the country. Our conversation was initially about birds and I told him about my recent experiences around the visit on our property by a large flock of Evening Grosbeaks. While we were talking, he pointed out a pair of mated Bald Eagles which were soaring over the fish ponds and told me they are nesting on a distant ridge within sight of the hatchery. This was my first sighting of Bald Eagles at the hatchery but I have to admit that I might have missed them soaring in the distance. As our conversation progressed, we got into an enlightening discussion of the ongoing decimation of the federal government by TRAITOR Trump. The man was open and honest about his feelings, stated he is just a few years from possible retirement, and might be willing to retire early if another opportunity is presented to employees in his department to take voluntary early retirement. Our conversation was mostly about the horrible attacks on government employees, immigrants, and humanity in general which is happening by TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet". Yes, it was a sad conversation in many ways. But it was also honest, open, enlightening, and, in some ways, stress reducing. After our conversation broke up after about 20 minutes, I walked back to my van to let Candice know that I had been talking and would just then be starting my hike so she would not be alarmed by my lateness in returning. Then I got into an area of the hatchery property which I had never been in before, saw a large amount of birds of several species, and had a great hike in an area I had never been in before. As I was preparing to leave the hatchery, both Candice and I were able to watch an osprey swoop into a pond and capture a large goldfish and fly away with it. I suspect that a pair of ospreys are raising young somewhere near the hatchery. It was a great experience from several viewpoints: political conversation, hiking, new experiences at the hatchery, and bird watching with two great species, one of which I had never documented before, the osprey actually taking a fish. And I got my sixth sighting of Bald Eagles, a mated pair in flight.

The Benefits Of Regular Exercise

Today marks two consecutive months in which I have not missed a single day of getting at least 30 minutes of fairly strenuous exercise with an hour on most of those days.  On several of those days I have done both an hour of walking at some site or other within driving distance of my home and at least 30 minutes of time on my stationary bike at home.  During the two previous months, October and November 2018, I had missed several days and become rather inconsistent despite having known for years that even two or three days of non-exercise results in a loss of previous progress in physical conditioning.  But for two complete months, I have now gotten up every day and made certain that I got exercise.  I have exercised somewhat regularly for nearly a year but this is my most consistent period. 

Today, I received what I consider to have been a reward for that consistency.  As I was walking in Old Mill Park in my hometown of West Liberty, KY, I suddenly heard another man who was walking near me yell "there is a bald eagle".  Sure enough circling about 200 to 300 feet over our heads and directly over the park which sits near the Licking River was a bald eagle with its white head and tail both clearly visible.  It circled above us for a couple of loops and flew away to the northeast in the general direction of Cave Run Lake where I have had one other sighting of an eagle several years ago.  This eagle was also only about ten miles from my home and about 8 or 9 miles from a site where I had seen another eagle eating  a road killed opossum just over two years ago.  The man who first saw this eagle today and I shared our stories of eagle sightings in the past and moved on just as the eagle had.  But, if there is such a thing as Karma, I thought that my sighting of an eagle on this two month anniversary of daily exercise was my reward for putting in that time.  If I had been sitting at home avoiding exercise, I would have had no chance to see an eagle in the city limits of West Liberty. It is also another verification that bald eagles are reproducing successfully in Eastern Kentucky and their numbers are growing and their territory is expanding.  I have now had three total eagle sightings within 30 miles of my home, 2 of them in my home county and 1 in my own neighborhood.  That is exciting. 

Seeing An Eagle On New Year's Eve!

Bald Eagle Photo by Wikepedia

Yesterday, December 31, 2016, New Year's Eve, I took a ride across the hill from my house to the local country store to pick up some ice cream to eat while I watched Alabama do what they do best, destroy lesser but ambitious competition.  As I was returning home, about a mile and a half from my house on a two lane road up a hollow, I looked ahead and saw a large bird in the middle of the highway eating on a road killed opossum.  As I approached, the bird began to rise and when I saw the wide spread tail beating to gain lift, I realized it looked like a Bald Eagle.  As I got closer, the bird lifted and turned and I got a clear look at the beautiful, white head.  It was an eagle.  I have seen a few eagles in my life before including one at Cave Run Lake in Rowan County Kentucky about thirty miles from my home.  But I had never seen one in Morgan County or anywhere near my home.  As I drove slowly on past, the eagle appeared to be turning toward a small group of trees in the edge of the creek bottom near the highway so I drove about a hundred yards farther, found a place to turn around and drove slowly back where I saw the eagle perched in the top of tree about fifty feet high beside the highway obviously waiting for the coast to clear so it could return to the opossum in the highway.  

I turned around and drove the short distance to my house and told my wife, Candice, about seeing an eagle almost within sight of our house.  Then I got on the phone to call my cousin, more like a brother, Jack Terry, to tell him about seeing the eagle.   He and I had a telephone conversation earlier in the week about eagles and other things and he had said that he has never seen an eagle in spite of having traveled over a great deal of the world with the US Army and US Army Corps of Engineers.  In that conversation, I had told him that the first eagle I ever saw was attempting to take off from the shoulder of US 441 a bit north of Yeehaw Junction, Florida, with half of a road killed armadillo.  Therefore, I already knew that eagles commonly eat road kill.  But after I ended this second conversation with Jack about the eagle sighting, I realized that this eagle is, as always, but now much more so, a metaphore for the United States Of America.   

Ever since Thomas Jefferson lost his argument in favor of the wild turkey, the Bald Eagle has been the most common symbol of the United States Of America.   We generally use strong, brave, free, and self sufficient words and phrases to describe the Bald Eagle.  We speak of the eagle in flight, soaring, gliding, and striking prey swiftly and silently from the skies.  Rarely, if ever, would an American speak of the Bald Eagle, this symbol of American Democracy sitting in the middle of the road eating road kill of any kind.  We would certainly never speak of the Bald Eagle as eating opossum.  Then the completion of the logical route I was on led me to my metaphorical destination.  The Bald Eagle sitting in the middle of a run down, two lane road in Eastern Kentucky eating a road killed animal which only about one in a million Americans would touch is an apt metaphore for the state we are now in as a nation.  

Unless President Obama, the United States Congress, the United States Supreme Court, and perhaps even the United States military step up and take some very courageous actions, this country will fall into the hands of man who is highly likely to be the greatest traitor this country has ever seen.  Steadily mounting evidence points to the highly likely possibility that Donald Trump colluded with the President of Russia to hack the United States election system computers and steal the presidential election from one of the most qualified candidates who ever ran.  President Obama has taken strong, public actions against the Russians by seizing two properties which have been suspected of being spying operations for many years.  He also ordered thirty-five or so Russian "diplomats" out of the country.  In response, Donald Trump has defended Putin and the Russians as he has done on several other occasions.  Putin responded by doing nothing and stating he is waiting for Trump to assume the White House.  Earlier, all fifteen US Intelligence agencies stated collectively and jointly that the Russians were behind the elections hacks.  In response to those announcements, Trump has consistently refused to admit or accept the validity of American intelligence.  It is a sorry kettle of fish in every way.  Trump, who was already unfit to hold any public office based on his history of self admitted sexual crimes, lack of intelligence and governmental experience, and multiple refusals to pay just debts, would have placed this country in great danger without the shadow of treason hanging over his head.  Now, it is likely that he is a greater traitor than Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, Aldrich Ames, or Tokyo Rose.   

It seems likely that a wide ranging investigation is ongoing by the US intelligence community, the US State Department, and the White House.  But can this investigation be completed and necessary enforcment and legal actions be taken in three weeks in time to prevent the White House from falling into the hands of a likely Russian spy?  As I understand some of the processes involved, it would require the investigation to be complete, a case from the Justice Department and State Department to be filed before the US Supreme Court, a special hearing to be held by the Supreme Court to vacate the election results, and some process put in place to choose a President.  It is highly complicated.  The risk is immeasurable if the wrong actions are taken or no actions are taken.  The time available to do the necessary investigative and legal work is far too short.  And there is only one other option available.  If the US Joint Chiefs Of Staff, the generals and admirals who are the supreme commanders of the military have evidence that requires it, they could stage a military coup in the wee hours of the morning of January 20, 2017, install an interim President, schedule another election in a year or so, and save the country.  I hope it does not require such actions.  But if those actions are warrented, I sincerely hope the Joint Chiefs have the courage to do the correct thing.  

Of course, I also sincerely hope that America does not simply sink to become an eagle eating a road killed opossum in the middle of a metaphorical highway.