Bald Eagles at Yorktown
As I travel through the park system, almost without fail I'll have one amazing sighting or event occur at each site I visit.
In October of 2001, shortly after 9/11, I was walking the Yorktown Battlefield in Colonial NHP. I was in a somber mood, my mind full of loss & terrorists & the decline of America and all sorts of other negative ideas that we probably all had in those weeks & months after the attacks. It was gorgeous, cloudless day, crisp but otherwise beautiful. A perfect day, but an imperfect mood.
I was walking across one of the fields when I noticed two hawks circling around beyond a Revolutionary War re-enactor lecturing a group of tourists. I stood to watch the raptors (as I am want to do), when I noticed they weren't hawks at all -- they were bald eagles.
I was quite shocked, I tell you what. I hadn't realized bald eagles had recovered so tremendously that they made it that far south -- and near a fairly populated area as well. But apparently, they had.
I stood and watched for quite some time. The symbolism of bald eagles circling the very battleground where the colonies gained their independence, so soon after 9/11, was not lost on me, that's for durn sure. Over 6 years later, it seems sappy & trite, but at that moment in time, it was pretty powerful.
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My travels through the National Park System: americaincontext.com
Comments
Kurt Repanshek
Barky,
That is a great story, more so because I don't think many folks would associate bald eagles with Colonial NHP.
My treks since moving West back in '85 have been mostly to Rocky Mountain parks, where you would more expect to see bald eagles and such. Two of my more memorable experiences: Seeing an osprey pluck a fat, juicy trout from the Snake River at Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton, and spying eaglets in a nest along the road just inside Yellowstone's West Entrance.
But again, you would more expect to see such birds in the Rockies. Spying bald eagles at Colonial attests to the great comeback they've made. As for the timing of your spotting, well, that's pretty powerful.
Paul "Barky" Dionne
Just to prove I'm not on crack ;-), here's the "backyard bird count" for bald eagles in Virginia in 2001.
http://gbbc.birdsource.org/gbbcApps/report?cmd=showReport&reportName=SpeciesCity&species=baleag&state=US-VA&year=2001
The Great Bald Eagle Comeback is one of the best success stories the environmental movement has ever had. :-)
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My travels through the National Park System: americaincontext.com
Stephen L Martin
Great story about the Bald Eagles. In 2005 I had my first live sighting of bald eagles, and I got to see a pair flying together. They were traversing the bay by Munising, MI while we were taking the boat out to see the Pictured Rocks.
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