WASHINGTON — The little gray fuzzball wiggled its way out of its shell and took in its surroundings: a snow-filled nest a hundred feet up an oak tree in Southeast D.C.
Liberty and Justice — one of three bald eagle couples in D.C. — welcomed the newest member of their brood about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, a moment caught on the eagle cam operated by the Earth Conservation Corps.
The eagle pair, which took up residence in a tree on the grounds of the D.C. Police Academy in Southeast more than a decade ago, have been waiting for the egg to hatch since Feb. 5. Another egg in the nest is expected to hatch by March 20.
D.C. police greeted the eaglet as the force’s “newest recruit” in a tweet Wednesday afternoon. (Police also assured a concerned Twitter user that the eagles were not trained to spy on people).
There’s no word on a name for the eaglet yet, but the Earth Conservation Corps has organized a bracket-style contest to help name the baby bird. Options range from the evocative (Empathy, Power, Fortitude) to the political (Bernie, Hillary, Donald) to the seemingly inapt — Metro. (This little one actually arrived on schedule, after all.)
The voting will reduce the field to a final four; from there, a panel of judges will pick the name. Judges will include D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham; former chief Cathy Lanier; LeVar Burton, of “Star Trek” and “Reading Rainbow” fame, who is an Earth Conservation Corps board member, and Earth Conservation Corps founder Robert Nixon.
Earlier this week, one of D.C.’s other famous eagle pairs — Mr. President and the First Lady — were spotted warming eggs in their nest perched above the National Arboretum during the late-season winter storm. Their brood is expected to hatch the last week of March.
