We heard them before we saw them. One morning last week as my husband and I were eating on the front deck, we simultaneously looked up from our granola and said, “Who is making those strange sounds?”
A glance in the sky over our neighbor’s field quickly gave us the answer. Two bald eagles were soaring, wheeling and conversing with each other. Their calls were unlike any we have heard from the birds who frequent our feeders and little woods.
Eagles do live along our lakeshore, but spotting them is not a daily experience….it’s an occasion to remark to a neighbor, “Did you see the eagle flying around in Fischer Creek Park yesterday?”
I said a silent thank you to Rachel Carson who wrote the 1962 book, Silent Spring, which alerted America to the horrible toll the pesticide DDT was taking on our bird populations. Songbirds died from eating poisoned insects, but birds higher up on the food chain such as raptors, suffered shell thinning. Their nests were filled with deformed offspring or the equivalent of omelettes. A ban on DDT allowed our bird populations to rebound before it was too late.
We hope eagles will be a continuing presence along our lakeshore. We are already referring to our duo as “George and Martha”.
Click here to hear the surprising sounds these magnificent raptors make.
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Thank you for sharing this. I have to make a trip back to one of my favorite places the Eagle Museum on the Mississippi.
Carol! Where exactly is the Eagle Museum on the Mississippi? We would love to see it and Fall is a good time to be there.
Mary–For a musical treat, you two may enjoy John Harbison’s “Crane Sightings.” We heard it played Saturday night at the Token Creek Festival . . .