OUT OF EDEN WALK

There were two bulldozers, a backhoe, a big flatbed cargo truck, and a huge excavator parked in the scattered spruce forest next to the highway. They were making a deep trench to bury fiber optic cables. We could see that directly ahead of them, in their line of digging, rose a tall spruce with a large and messy bald eagles’ nest built atop its trunk. The mama and papa eagles were in the nest feeding their chicks. We called out to warn the workers. But nobody responded. The equipment seemed abandoned. Maybe the crew was taking its lunch break at a nearby roadhouse.

“Let’s call their company,” walking partner Phil Norris said, and he dialed a phone number stenciled on the side of the truck. We had a faint mobile signal. The call went through. The number was in Texas.

“Hello? Hello?” Phil said. But nobody picked up. It was a recording with a message service.

We left a message about the eagles’ nest. We included the latitude and longitude of the worksite. It was all we could do. We walked on.