At 5,610 feet, in October, it’s cold. I have coffee waiting in a thermos and a stove to warm it or myself, if the wind blows too hard. I’m seated in the snow with a wool blanket over my legs, shielded from the wind by a fir whose lively scent overwhelms me. I check my watch: it’s been twenty minutes. I decide to hold out a bit for the coffee.

It’s 34 degrees here on Highway 200 at Rogers Pass, between Lincoln and Great Falls. A full moon in the pre-dawn haze asks me to pay attention, since the light it affords is dull and patchy. I hold a pair of binoculars in my gloved hands and sit waiting for the heavens to open, for all things avian to wrest from their roosts and take to the air. I wait for a bird made rare by the special status in our country of its bald cousin, for a bird made rare by its name: the Golden Eagle. …

This Field Note was written by Russ Van Paepeghem. Would you be interested in writing one? Contact Allison De Jong, Field Notes editor, at adejong [at] montananaturalist [dot] org or 406.327.0405. Please visit the Field Notes website at the Montana Natural History Center for more information.