Eagles of North Lawrence

This nesting pair has successfully fledged six eaglets since 2005. Watching the 2008 eaglet from hatching to fledging was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. My partner and I visited the nest several times a week throughout the spring. We watched the parents feed, watched the chick go from begging for food to taking it right out of her parents' mouths, to taking her first flight. On the day of that first flight, we sat watching her exercise her wings in her usual vigor, then she just took off. I heard my partner gasp and we both cried as she flew around the pond a couple of times and made an awkward landing back at the nest. I have never seen anything like her determination, or her beauty.

The Bald Eagles

Historically, bald eagles were regular residents of Kansas lakes and streams. DDT and other chemicals changed that, not only in Kansas, but throughout the nation. The use of these toxins thinned eggshells and often made adults sterile. Since fish are the primary diet of eagles, mercury was also responsible for their dwindling numbers. According to the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, in 1963, there were only 417 nesting pairs left in the 48 contiguous United States. While DDT has not been in use for some time, it will be a very long while before bald eagle populations are restored (they were recently removed from the endangered species list, prematurely).

Other common threats to bald eagles are power lines, cars, and gunshots. Even though they are no longer on the endangered list, they are still protected, but it seems some humans just cannot resist taking a shot at them. This is very common for juvenile eagles who are not quite as fearful of humans as they should be.
Over the last twenty years, Kansas has made great strides in helping restore this amazing bird. Since the first nest at Clinton State Park in 1989, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks notes that approximately 30 pairs of eagles have nested in Kansas and these nests have fledged approximately 330 eaglets.

I saw my first bald eagle at Clinton State Park in 2007. Before moving to Lawrence, I was not aware that bald eagles existed in or had ever existed in Kansas. I was not prepared for the thrill of seeing them and had no idea at the time that seeing them would launch my fascination with the birds of Douglas County. (Click on picture to enlarge.)

Wild about Douglas County

I've always thought of myself as a kind of witness. The need to document everything has been around as long as I can remember. A little over a year ago, I took my old Sony digital camera (yes, it's hard to imagine that a digital camera can now be deemed "old") out to Clinton State Park and started shooting. I saw my first bald eagle and I couldn't stop watching. My interest in photography was renewed and integrated with my desire to document and honor the great diversity of animals living in and around Douglas County.

Soon after this project began, I upgraded the Sony Mavica to a Canon Digital Rebel. It wasn't long after this upgrade that I realized the 18-55 mm lens wasn't going to cut it, particularly after I discovered a bald eagle nest. The 18-55 was replaced with the 70-300 mm, which was then replaced with a 100-400 mm, the lens I am using now. The camera seems a bit slow now with the fancier lens, so I am currently saving for a step up in cameras rather than lenses.

When this project began, I had little knowledge of bird species. The bald eagle was an obvious one; they are certainly recognizable. Mostly, my reaction to seeing a new bird was, "Wow, that was a pretty one." I had no idea who was who. I didn't know a warbler from a songbird, a coot from a duck. A year later, I find myself shooting two to three hundred pictures during an outing and coming home to look up unfamiliar birds in Gress and Janzen's Kansas Birds and Birding Hot Spots.

I cannot look away. I look at each animal as a testament to the great diversity of life on our planet and I want to honor each one. I watch them swimming, flying, hunting, eating, and caring for each other and I wonder what they think of us. They live around humans and some get very close to us. Others are more cautious, but I think they all understand the danger. It is with that in mind that I tiptoe around the lake and river, doing my best not to interrupt the state of things, to witness each animal in their element, doing what they do.