Sometimes you get that one picture that was worth a day of missed pictures.

Such was the case Thursday for my daughter, wife and me.

We made what is becoming an annual trip to Toledo Bend to look for eagles.

A year ago the attendant who was at the gate heading into South Toledo Bend State Park when asked about the possibility of seeing an eagle, told us, “Get on down to the lake and then look up … they’re everywhere.”

After two hours of looking at the sky, we left without seeing an eagle much less many birds at all.

This time the attendant was a little more diplomatic.

“I don’t know. We really don’t know when they will appear,” he said.

I did get a couple of shots of some large birds high in the sky that could have been eagles. They did not have the coloring of a bald eagle, but they could have been young ones since I understand that the bald eagle doesn’t get its white coloring until later years.

Still, it wasn’t what we wanted.

So we decided to follow the lake north. But at just about every turn into what was called a recreational area a fee was expected and I was getting short.

It was then we opted to take the cutoff to Hornbeck and go a couple of miles farther north to Hodges Garden State Park. There we had seen an eagle nest before, and at the entrance one of the workers said there was a pair of bald eagles nesting on the grounds.

She recalled directions to the nest for us and we left.

On the way is when I got that one picture.

Anne saw them first.

There on the lake — which is surrounded by the park — feeding against the bank were four of the biggest Canada geese I had ever seen and eight goslings.

We watched them buzz in and out of the weeds near the bank.

Six of the young geese belonged to one pair, the other two to the other.

The elders led the young chicks around. I don’t know if the male or female was the leader, but they all went in a straight line.

Later I found out that there were six pairs of Canada geese that have made Hodges Garden their full-time home and they have hatched chicks each year.

There has been a problem, though.

“Last year,” said one of the workers, “only one out of six chicks that hatched made it.”

The reason: the eagles.

We never saw the eagles. We did see the nest.

And those eight chicks continued to follow their leaders as we pulled away.

I just hope they still are.