Bear Center Upgrade and an Eagle with a Memory - UPDATE April 5, 2023
Bald Eagle
At the North American Bear Center, Director Scott Edgett liked the classy rock look of the outside entryway so much that he echoed it inside. And it’s beautiful. The bland look of the doorway going out, the last thing a person would see there, has turned into a memorable work of art. In fact, he liked it so much that he gave the same look to our inside bear-viewing area below the windows. Now widened, the window sill works as a bench that kids can sit on to be near bears that are on the other side of the glass. Both good upgrades. Thank you Scott and everyone involved.
Inside entrance
Bear viewing window
Bear viewing window
Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle
and suet Raven and suet
Out the window at the Wildlife Research Institute where I’m supposed to be working, a bald eagle was more of a distraction that I could resist. Toward evening last night, he came flying straight toward me, low enough that he barely skimmed over the roof as he checked out the piece of suet 11 or 12 feet from where I sit at my desk by the second floor window. A few minutes later he came out of nowhere flying lower and flared off when he saw me at my desk. He knew I was there and he didn’t dare land, but on another pass he dropped so close to snatch the suet that he put his feet down but then flared off when he glimpsed me again, looking spectacular so close with one wing up and one wing down turning sharply. He landed on a branch across the yard and watched. It was getting too dark for good shutter speed and depth of field, but I wanted something to record the moment. I snapped a couple as he launched into another reconnaissance flight, swooping up to a branch where I could hardly see him. He was in position to swoop down from the side and grab going by, which he did. Behind branches, I could see him leap into a dive, flatten out, extend his feet, tear more than half off the suet and swoop by. Spectacular, but he landed on a branch and didn’t eat anything. What happened to the suet? He just sat looking warily in all directions as the light faded and he flew off across Woods Lake and disappeared over the horizon. I thought it was the end of the story, but today I arrived before 5 AM and went to work, at 6:40 AM I looked out the window when the first birds were arriving and there he was perched in the big red pine he’d been sitting in last evening. For the next 15 minutes or so, he sat scoping things out, looking in all directions. I thought he was back to snatch the remaining quarter of the suet, but a little before 7 AM, he swooped down out of sight, and then flew up with yesterday’s suet in his talons. He remembered, and he knew where to look. He flew to a branch in the half light on this overcast day and perched to eat where I could click what obviously was the suet. Later, a raven polished off most of the remaining quarter at the feeder, and a crow got the scraps the raven left. Now, at about 4 PM as I was typing this, he came back to the same red pine. His head was behind the trunk this time, so I sneaked out to put more suet and seed out to see what would happen. But then as I was typing this a wind came up and a blizzard hit, and when I next looked out he was gone. But seeing him come so close and flaring with his big wings stretched is something I’m not going to forget. It was a memorable distraction and I’m glad to work where I do seeing wildlife in ways I would not have dreamed. Now, back to work.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
