And you thought romance was dead.
Alert the paparazzi: D.C.’s most-scandalous bald eagles — Liberty and Justice — are apparently back together, according to the latest webcam footage from their nest some 100 feet above the D.C. police academy in Southwest.
It could signal a happy ending to a sad drama that began when Justice disappeared last month, just days before his mate of 14 years laid the first of two eggs. In the time since, those eggs were abandoned, and Liberty was seen cavorting with two other males — nicknamed “Aaron Burrd” and “M2.”
Justice was sighted back at the nest on Wednesday, some 18 days after his disappearance. Since then, “Justice has been seen with her on multiple occasions over the past couple of days,” said Tommy Lawrence of the Earth Conservation Corps, which runs the cam.
“So their relationship has definitely been getting better. And we think that they’re rekindling it.”
With the reunion, the pair have eased back into blissful domestic coexistence, even though the eggs are now non-viable and won’t hatch. Liberty’s been bringing fish back into the nest, but hasn’t been eager to share it, per the eagle cam’s log.
(She’s allowed to be a little cheesed off at him, no?)
“Right now, Justice and Liberty are actually sitting right behind the nest just perched up behind the nest just hanging out,” Lawrence said.
Even better, none of the reputed homewreckers in this drama have been sighted recently.
“Since Justice returned, we have not seen M2 on the nest or around the area,” Lawrence said. “We’ve only seen Liberty, leading us to believe that either Liberty gave M2 the boot or Justice scared him off.”
How typical is a reconciliation/reunion like this? Is this truly one of the great, enduring bird romances of our generation? It’s hard to say, Lawrence said, because high-tech, 24/7 eagle observation is a relatively new thing, and the eagle population is still coming back.
“We haven’t really been able to view bald eagles 24/7 before without sitting out in a field with a telescope,” he said.
Check in on the couple below.
