Last year we started putting in at our house and floating north into West Virginia. That section of the river is gorgeous, quiet, and packed with wildlife.

Today we saw huge catfish, a monstrous carp, multiple eagles, many varieties of duck, snowy egrets, and a brown limbed hottie.

The Shenandoah river (aka our front yard).

About a mile down from the stairs, an eagles’ nest.

The eagles nest on one of the monastery’s islands.


Closeup of eagles nest.

We chased one eagle downriver for a while until we came to its mate perched high in a tree.

Eagle flies away.

Guess who this stretch of the river belongs to?

The ducks, the egrets and the ubiquitous blue herons flew ahead all afternoon.

Pre-startle.

Post-startle,

Cows do not belong in the river. But there are still some cows allowed to wallow.

And the wildest creature of all, a brown limbed hottie.