WASHINGTON — Go birding with Dan Rauch, a wildlife biologist with the D.C. Department of the Environment, and you’ll have a hard time keeping up with him. Within seconds he can catalog by sight and sound, palm warblers, pileated woodpeckers, yellow shafted flickers and more.
But on Thursday, the big news is that the bald eagles nesting at the National Arboretum have become parents. Rauch and a colleague from DDOE spotted the eaglets this week. He saw the father wheel in with a fish. Then the mother took off and the father picked the fish apart, then leaned in toward the nest.
“And here came the little head popped up. And it was so exciting,” says Rauch.
That meant there was one confirmed eaglet in the nest, but Rauch believes there are two. While he never saw them at the same time, he says it looked like the father was feeding in different places.
There are three nesting pairs of eagles in District of Columbia: the pair at the arboretum, another on the campus of St. Elizabeth’s and a third at the Metropolitan Police Department training center. Rauch says they’ve confirmed an eaglet at the nest at St. Elizabeth’s is just older than a month.
The presence of bald eagles, a national symbol, right in nation’s capital, is a signal that the big birds are thriving, even in an urban environment. While bald eagles appear to be fearsome creatures, they do have some competition from other birds. Thursday, when the male was feeding the eaglets, some unwelcome visitors showed up and alarmed the bird.
“Three crows did come in, and he let out a call. The female showed up and chased them right off. They’re great co-parents, they’re very protective.”
As Rauch pointed out the birds wheeling above the arboretum on a cold, cloudy afternoon, he spotted a red tailed hawk moving in on the eagles’ nesting area. As if on cue, one of the eagles took off and in the manner of a fighter jet scrambling when a threat’s been identified, the big eagle escorted the hawk from the area, away from the nest.
Rauch says cities like Washington, D.C. provide a great opportunity for anyone interested in wildlife to spot a huge range of birds.
“Right now is the beginning of spring migration. We have all these fantastically colored near-tropical migrants who are moving through.”
All anyone has to do, says Rauch, is step out their front door.
“Nature is right here.”
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
