Air Date: Week of October 18, 2024

A panic of American herring gulls alerted Lender to the eagle’s presence. (Photo: © Mark Seth Lender)

Rise early in the morning and head out to a nearby national wildlife refuge, and you’ve got a good shot of being rewarded with the sights and sounds of all kinds of birds. And on this birdwatching trip, you might be watched back, Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender reports.

Transcript

DOERING: Rise early in the morning and head out to a nearby national wildlife refuge, and you’ve got a good shot of being rewarded with the sights and sounds of all kinds of birds. And on this birdwatching trip, you might be watched back. Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence, Mark Seth Lender reports from Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge on the Connecticut coast.

Eagle!
Bald Eagle
Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge
© 2024 Mark Seth Lender
All Rights Reserved

LENDER: From here to the west of us as far as I can see every herring gull has taken to the air. Only one thing does that.

“Eagle! Valerie!”

She comes running and we stand on the porch, passing the good binoculars back and forth, straining our eyes.

Nothing.

“Are you sure?” She says.

“They’re sure,” I say.

The gulls can see an order of magnitude better than we can and I trust their eyes over my own. To say nothing of their caution.

One minute, three minutes…

Valerie sees him before I do.

“There,” she says and hands me the binoculars.

Adult male. Smaller, more compact than a female. White tail. White head. Eyes that look almost full front. Huge yellow beak. Six feet of span together with the length of those flight feathers means he pulls a lot of air, the wing beat deceptively slow. He covers the distance in no time.

And looks right at us.

It’s 6:30 in the morning, the summer folk vacated and gone and we are the only humans out at this hour, but even so. He can see even better than the gulls. But why he bothers to look – can’t say. He’s not in competition with us, not threatened. We are in the middle of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, he has no experience of harassment here much less harm. It is not a look of concern. Maybe, just the fact he’s here, by himself, we are here, by ourselves. Maybe, that’s all that life needs. To be worthy of a look. To draw attention.

I put the binoculars down now, he’s close enough they are not needed and we watch each other, not too different from medieval knights, raising their visors in salute.

DOERING: That’s Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence, Mark Seth Lender.

 

Links

Read the Field Note for this essay

Learn more about the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge

Much of the wildlife of the Stewart B. McKinney can be seen at Smeagull’s Guide to Wildlife

Explore more of Mark Seth Lender’s work