Hope Just Flew in on Harriet's Wings - by SuzAnne Miller.

March 27, 2021. My morning started with a long slow audible sigh of relief and tears streaming down my cheeks. The usual early morning check of my webcams from my phone brought Harriet into full view which provoked a rush of emotion I did not expect.

Harriet's return has always delighted and relieved me, but this spring's return opened a floodgate of feelings that I did not know I was harboring.

Harriet has been an integral part of my life since the webcam went up in 2011. She brings spring to Dunrovin each year. She is the center of attention all summer as she goes about the business of reproducing and defending that which is hers.

Harriet has changed my life. She is the inspiration for my having started DaysAtDunrovin.com. She has brought many new friends into my world. Her life has become inexorably intertwined with mine. But she is more even than that. I love this bird in spite of the fact that she neither knows nor cares about me. Love can, indeed, be one directional.

Harriet has given me strength and hope during a most difficult period of my life. She has been a constant reminder of the resilience and beauty of life.

The past ten years have brought me eight surgeries, a stroke, and two horrendously expensive and stressful legal battles with Missoula County in which they tried to close Dunrovin. Each year I seem to lose more of myself - my hearing, my balance, my self confidence. It is a road that all too many walk as they age.

The malaise extends beyond the personal. Our country is at war with itself. Truth has become optional. Some think science is the enemy. Covid has imprisoned us all. Controversy and hate erupt over the easiest thing in the world to do to protect one another:  wear a mask.  Inexplicably, humanity continues to degrade the nature upon which all life depends. The future is full of uncertainty.

It is overwhelming at times --- and then Harriet returns. She does not have these burdens. While time too may be weathering away her faculties, this does not occupy her mind. She is simply and exquisitely committed to life, to doing what must be done with whatever abilities she has. Watching her prods me to do the same - and in so doing, hope and joy rush in to fill the void left when worries and self doubt depart. It is her gift to me.

Luc Joins Ruby To Nest Again!

What an exciting week in Dunrovin’s avian world! Luc, the extraordinarily beautiful leucitic red-tailed hawk retired to the area to couple up again with Ruby. They have been flying together above the river and spending time preening and watching their domain from their favorite tree on the south side of Dunrovin. Ruby had also been making use of the south pasture perch - which could cause competition with our osprey family. Everything points to summer full of chicks and avian aerial entertainment!