When I was growing up on the farm in northwest Iowa, bald eagles were nearly extinct. After the pesticide DDT was banned in 1972, and Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1978, bald eagles staged a successful comeback over the next three decades. When the miracle of modern technology made it possible to install a web cam to livestream a nesting bald eagle pair near Decorah in 2007, it captivated a global audience of millions.
But my family soon discovered that we didn't need to livestream the Decorah eagles' nest. The barnyard on the farm of my husband's parents had become a raptor habitat.
In fact, for most of the past 15 years, a pair of bald eagles have made their home in a tall, craggy cottonwood overlooking the cattle yard and shed. A creek wends its way through the nearby pasture. A man-made lake lies a stone's throw away, and the Des Moines River is 2.5 miles east.
It all began on a late November day in 2009 when my mother-in-law, Betty, was watching out the kitchen window for my husband who would drive her to the funeral home after the death of her husband of 63 years. Suddenly, she saw four bald eagles fly toward the house, and land in a nearby tree. Other sightings followed during that winter, and by the next fall, a pair of bald eagles began building a nest.
The nest was in the direct line of vision of her west kitchen windows. Betty, 83 years old, could sit at her kitchen table, using a pair of binoculars to give her a bird's eye view of the eagles and their nest.
She spent many winter days working on jigsaw puzzles, tending indoor plants, reading, cooking, watching TV, and sometimes riding herd on her grandchildren. She also watched the eagles gather branches, hay, and corn husks to build their nest, and take turns incubating the eggs. After the eggs hatched during the last week of March or early April, Betty was on the lookout for the first sight of small heads popping up above the nest. She observed the eagles take turns leaving the nest and returning with take-home meals for their fledglings.
It gave her something new to look forward to each day, during a difficult time of loss. Sometimes on a sunny, warm day in late March, during spring calving, she'd drive across the barnyard in her four-wheeler, and park it beneath the tree, watching for signs that the babies had hatched. The eagles didn't seem to mind. My husband fed and watered the cows and calves not far from their nest. His daily chores never concerned the eagles. None of the farmstead cats were carried away.
Soon Betty became an expert on eagles, referring to her newly acquired stack of reference books to answer our questions and offer interesting facts, including:
· It takes about five years for an eagle's tail and head feathers to turn from brown to white.
· Eaglets hatch after about 35 days of incubation.
· The female is slightly larger than the male.
· Eagles mate for life.
During the first few years of their nesting, the word spread, and our barnyard eagles became a novelty. The traffic count on that gravel road jumped, as people drove by slowly, hoping for a glimpse of the pair. Neighbors and friends might stop in to say "Hello" after watching the eagles. Betty became known as "the Eagle Lady" to strangers, who were mostly careful and considerate. Once, when my sister-in-law was there, two strangers tried to get the eagles to leave the nest, so they could get a better photo. The DNR came to Betty's door; they wanted to place bands on the eaglets. But we worried that the eagles would be spooked, and never return.
Lessons of perseverance
Most raptor experts estimate that an eagle pair might maintain the same nest for four or five years, and then move on. But we've learned it's common for them to stay much longer.
Bald eagles have an average lifespan of 16.5 years, and eventually they outlasted Betty. She spent her final two years at a nearby nursing home, where she relayed our updates on the eagles to other residents. She died in 2019 at age 93. We know she'd be happy that the eagles remain here on the farm.
But were times that we weren't certain what would happen. When the derecho tore through here in September of 2020, wind gusts of over 100 mph flattened acres of crops only a few weeks away from harvest. It also destroyed the eagles' nest. We didn't expect them to return.
But they did come back the next fall to rebuild. However, an unprecedented December 2021 derecho set loose a record-breaking number of EF-2/F-2 tornados, causing substantial damage to our area, and once again destroying their nest.
Imagine our surprise in the fall of 2022 when my husband saw the eagles building the nest again on the same branches of the same tree. In September, our nephew was moving round bales from a nearby pasture, and the bald eagle in this photo perched on one, watching him work. Bryce left this bale until the last, and the eagle finally spread its wings, and flew away.
When my sister-in-law drove past the farm on Betty's birth date this February, she saw three eagles circling overhead.
Hardships of Mother Nature
We hope their eggs will hatch. But, as in life, we know many setbacks and sudden losses occur in Nature. For instance, last year, the live cam in the N2B nest (https://explore.org/livecams/birds/decorah-goose-cam) north of Decorah revealed that a pair of Canadian geese were occupying the eagles' nest. The eagle cam, now dubbed The Goose Cam, captured the hatching of their young last April.
But a bald eagle pair live in the North Nest in the white oak tree near the Decorah Trout Hatchery. (The Raptor Resource Project sometimes refers to it as NestFlix!) One egg was laid on Feb. 20, but the female eagle's effort to produce a second egg was thwarted by an unexpected need to defend the nest from other invading eagles. The eagle pair left the nest, and the solo egg. It's not likely to hatch. Another emerging threat to bald eagles in Iowa (and other states) is the spread of avian influenza by migrating birds. It's infected many commercial poultry flocks.
Betty never knew the eagles were driven from their nest on the farm in 2020 and 2021 by windstorms, and she never could have imagined the Covid-19 nursing home shutdown during those years. But this farmer and mother of four was no stranger to life's obstacles and heartaches. She was a grandmother of six when she acquired 10 bonus grandchildren: four stepchildren and six bi-racial adopted children. She treated them all the same.
But it's not the same without her. We had great conversations in the last few years about the ways that politicians were letting us down: why equal rights for women were under attack, the rise of an obsession to deny LGBTQ rights and the senseless elevation of gun rights over human lives. I loved hearing her life stories, including 18-month stint in the Army Signal Corp in Washington, DC during World War II.
Today, if she were here, we'd talk about how glad we are to put this winter behind us-- with its wind chill values of -40 below, frozen cattle waterers, and days of drifting snow across rural roadways. I'd share how I was blind-sided by the death of my brother, and how Covid-19 finally reared its ugly head at our house only days before his memorial service. Then, this week, just as the spring equinox arrived, how we failed to convince Bud, our beloved 13-year canine companion, to live on to dig in my flowerbeds for one more season.
But one of the many lessons of Betty's long and healthy life was her glass half-full outlook. I know she would listen, and then remind me to show her photos of our family's memorable January trip to visit our California cousins, and the birth of a new great-grand niece on my late brother's February birthday. She'd marvel at the miracle of her 24-year-old grandson's life-saving heart surgery. (An x-ray following a minor vehicular accident revealed that he was living with a faulty heart valve and an aneurysm large enough to rupture and kill him)
Losses and Gains
The eagles' nest on the farm was an unexpected gift for Betty, our family, and our community. We've learned a lot about bald eagles over the past 15 years. Their perseverance through life's derechos may be the biggest lesson. They mate for life, maintain fidelity to their nest and their young, and rebuild their lives as soon as possible if the nest is destroyed.
It's possible that this eagle pair has launched 25 offspring into this corner of Boone County. Eaglets take their first solo flight (fledge) at about 12 weeks. Raptor experts say that eagles take such good care of their young that when the young birds leave the nest at around 18 to 20 weeks, they often weigh more than their parents!
Young eagles may move around frequently as they explore their options before settling down with a mate and nesting territory of their own. But they often don't move far. After all, bald eagles also have a strong sense of place.
Accepting the flight of our grown children isn't easy. So far, only three of Betty's 16 grandchildren have left Iowa's nest. Will Iowa ever return to its tradition as a state with moderate, common-sense citizens who prioritize public education, and take steps to stem the migration of our adult children by embracing the needs for good child care, thriving arts and culture in our communities, and nature trails and clean waterways?
In the meantime, you’ll find us here, watching for small eaglet heads poking up above the nest. In a couple months, we'll crane our necks to see through the leafy branches and watch them start flapping their fledgling wings, practicing for weeks until they gain strength for their first flight.I’m delighted to be part of this group!
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