The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Eagerly awaiting egg sighting
American bald eagle pair tend nest in area
Daily visitors to Eastlake’s Bruce Yee Park have been keeping their eyes peeled for a sign that nesting bald eagles Kindness and Justice are protecting an egg.
Elsie and Dave Brockett are among the park’s regular visitors and have been sharing their excitement with the Kindness & Justice Eastlake Eagles Facebook group of which they are administrators.
Elsie said the egg, or eggs, can be expected any day now.
“They have been sitting so low in the nest,” Elsie said. “I think she’s going to lay an egg sometime soon here.”
They will presume an egg has been laid when it appears that Kindness and Justice are taking turns sitting in the nest, refraining from leaving it empty.
After laying as many as four eggs, it will take approximately 35 days for them to hatch, according to the American Eagle Foundation.
“The female doesn’t lay all the eggs at once,” Elsie said. “They lay them a few days apart, but then they hatch in the same order that they were laid and it’s easier to take care of them that way when they hatch.”
Once they are strong enough, Dave said the eaglets will spend the next several months learning to fly, fish and hunt from their parents.
Kindness and Justice are not first-time parents.
In 2018 two eaglets named Freedom and Jefferson hatched and fledged.
“That year the kindergartners from Jefferson Elementary School named them. The teacher tries to guide them because they might end up naming them
Peanut Butter and Jelly because those kids come up with all kinds of names,” Elsie said.
On Feb. 11, 2019, Kindness laid another egg, but before it could hatch a different female eagle intruded on the nest.
“The intruder came in and attacked the female on the nest,” Dave said. “They tangled for a bit at the park and then they both flew off. They left for about half an hour or so, but it was just too cold for the eggs. When they finally came back, the eggs were way too cold to survive.”
If Kindness and Justice have eggs that hatch this year, the plan is to let another local grade school class name the eaglets.
Until more is known about the status of Kindness and Justice’s eggs, Elsie and Dave will continue to share updates on the eagles and other wildlife information on their Facebook page of nearly 1,000 members.
Elsie and Dave, along with moderators Aaron Ganz, Joni Ganz and Karen
Sendek work to foster a community on the page that extends beyond just the eagles.
“The page isn’t just about the eagles,” Aaron Ganz said. “That’s the main thing that brings everybody together and then it opens people up to connections and learning about even more wildlife,”
Together the group has hosted speakers, sold and donated calendars and helped out with the Surfside Community Easter Egg Hunt, among other service projects.
Sendek said the activities are catered for people of all ages and that everyone is welcome to join.
They had been fundraising to have the American Eagle Foundation install a camera so the eagles’ activity can be live streamed across the world, but the project has been handed over to city officials who hope to reach a goal of $25,500 with additional grant funding and sponsorships.
Joni Ganz said she is proud that the group lives out the values of Kindness and Justice’s names.
“The Eagles represent us in Eastlake, but we have to represent the eagles too,” she said. “So we have Kindness and we all try to teach each other nicely and then we work with the community for Justice.”
“They have been sitting so low in the nest. I think she’s going to lay an egg sometime soon here.” — Elsie Brockett, administrator of Kindness & Justice Eastlake Eagles Facebook group