Tonight, our first guests of the year finished their supper and headed back out to fish some more. Some of these guests have had days of catching more big fish, one right after another, than they ever have this first week of the season. The weather is unseasonably warm and pair that with the late ice out, and the fishing patterns are different. Rain is coming in the next day or two so that will change the patterns once again.

The eagle has landed…and made sure that everyone else knew who was boss. Photo by BNC guest Scott Leek

So with supper done, our kids are kayaking and Brian is taking the remains from the fish house out to the gut rock. If you have never heard of the gut rock, it is a small island near camp where we donate our fish guts to the birds of Red Lake. First, it is the gulls that land in droves. They will even come over to camp and call us out there to feed them. About 20 of them were flying high over Brian’s head tonight as he drove the boat out there. Then in come the eagles, the rulers of the gut rock, to clear away the riff-raff. And no one argues with these regal, intimidating birds. Brian says right now there are just two eagles who are driving away all of the other birds. Nature’s hierarchy, I guess you would say. Survival of the fittest.

After Brian dumped the guts and pulled away from the rock tonight, suddenly he saw an eagle swoop in and go after a raven, wounding it. The raven’s mate then came to the rescue only to be driven off by the first eagle’s mate. If only we knew the background story of that mid-air attack and grab!

Here is a photo taken last year by Scott Leek, one our yearly guests, during a “gut-run.” Just another amazing day in the wilderness life of Bow Narrows Camp, Red Lake, Ontario.