Bald Eagles and Jim

I went and watched the bald eagles flying over the Potomac River today. I was hoping to be as amazed. Like the first time I saw one. It wasn’t the same.

The first time I remember seeing a bald eagle I was a child. I grew up between the Potomac and Rappahanock River. Large birds were common. They were frightening, but not in a run away and hide kind of way. They were frightening in a - you better respect me because I just plucked a huge catfish out of the river with my bare talons kind of way. They were powerful. I was a child.

Today I wasn’t frightened at all. I watched as the bird flew over us. Their wings can span up to 8 feet. This eagle was not that big. It was large but not that big. It was beautiful.I remembered being told that my children would never see a bald eagle. They were endangered, and they would be long gone before my children could see them. I didn’t believe it. There was no way a bird like that would be extinct. I know now, that they could have been. That idea was not plausible when I was a child.

I suppose they are a success story for the environmentalists. In Virginia, the population of nesting bald eagles has tripled in the past 7 years. I was told there were close to 80 bald eagles in the national park I was visiting. I watched my daughters’ face as she told the ranger about her first bald eagle sighting, a few weeks ago, on the Rappahanock. It was huge. It sat in the tree and watched us. Her face had that excited frightened look as she described it. To her, they are powerful. For me, she was a child that got to see the bald eagles. The ones she was never supposed to see.

I’m grateful that are people like Jim, the park ranger at Caledon. He had bright blue eyes that sparkle as he talks about the wildlife. I wonder if my daughter realizes how lucky she is. Lucky that people like him would take the time to look out for these animals. Even when everyone else has already written them into extinction.

So today, when I watched the bald eagles I saw the love and respect that had to exist for them to be here. That didn’t frighten me at all