A Brief Respite
I’ve been watching the Eagles.
No, not the band, or the football team from Philadelphia. The eagles I have been watching live in Big Bear Valley in California. You can go to You Tube and search for Big Bear Valley, and there they are. I’ve been watching since early February, and I am quite taken with this family of Bald Eagles. Some people have been watching for years.
If you go to Big Bear Valley on You Tube, you will meet Jackie and Shadow. Jackie is the Mom. She has a dark smudge over her right eye, her head tends to look less curved than Shadow’s, she is bigger, and her face is more stern than Shadow’s. Jackie and Shadow had three eggs, and folks were on the edge of their seats waiting for the little ones to arrive. Evidently, their brood last year didn’t hatch, so there was some reason for the anxiety. That, and it’s Nature, so you never know what is going to happen. (Insert foreshadowing music here.)
Big Bear Valley is in the mountains of San Bernadino County, and it snows there. Jackie and Shadow are very good parents, and kept their eggs warm and safe through all the snow and sleet and rain. There was some pretty nasty weather. Jackie didn’t let Shadow sit on the nest much during the bad weather, and she would be on the nest for sixty hours or more at a stretch. There were times when she was completely covered in snow. She never gave up, though. Shadow did his part, too. He is a mighty hunter, and brought plenty of food back to the nest: fish, coots (a medium sized water bird), even a duck or two. They call and communicate to each other quite a bit, and I am convinced that sometimes they were arguing. They seem to know each other’s voices, and seemed to be checking in with each other, or calling out to each other, sometimes even having intimate conversations. (Side note: at the time of this writing, the sound is not currently functional at Camera 1)
After what seemed like a long, long time, the eggs hatched. Three little fluffball eaglets! Shadow and Jackie took turns hunting and feeding the littles, although Jackie still spent more time brooding and feeding and Shadow spent more time watching and hunting. It was nature at its finest.
Last weekend, there was a storm that dumped two feet of snow on Big Bear Valley. Jackie, true to form, did the lion’s share (eagle’s share?) of guarding the nest. Eagles develop a brood patch, an area on their chest with no feathers, so the blood vessels are closer to the skin and it helps keep the eggs and the babies warm. They did their best. Unfortunately, one of the little eaglets did not survive the storm.
It was devastating.
Many, many people were incredibly sad about the little fluffball that did not survive. I know, survival of the fittest and all that. But Jackie and Shadow went through so much to bring this life into the world. I read that eagles bury their chicks that don’t survive. I don’t know if that is true, but for now I am choosing to believe it. I do know that Jackie flew her little one off the nest for the last time.
When those eggs started to hatch, and then after the eaglets were here, there were close to 100,000 people on line, watching, teachers showing their classes, in the background on work screens, people waiting, rooting for the Bald Eagle Family. People from all over the world, from as far away as Australia. It’s as if, for a brief period of time, politics, geography, wars, religion, none of it mattered. We could put all that aside and appreciate something beautiful, something pure, something simple.
It was a nice respite. I sure wish it would last.
Peace,
Kat