Neither Kathy nor I are what you would call Nature Lovers. We would rather walk over hot coals than go camping- and our idea of roughing it is eating dinner on our patio. But over the last few days, we have been communing with nature courtesy of an extraordinary website sponsored by the Raptor Resource Project, based in my former hometown of Decorah, Iowa. This organization is devoted to the restoration of eagle, hawk and falcon populations in the midwest – and one means by which they raise public awareness is through this webcam which, at the simple click of a mouse, yields an amazingly closeup view of an eagle’s nest in rural Decorah. . . 24/7. There are two cameras fixed on the nest, which was built by this very pair of eagles back in 2007, and in which these eagles have successfully raised eaglets each of the last three seasons. The first of three eggs was laid back on February 23rd – the last on March 2nd – and the eggs finally hatched over the last several days. (The last one hatched just today.) And Kathy and I and tens of thousands of people across the country have been glued to our computer screens, watching this little family. Much of the time, one only sees one of the parent eagles majestically perched in the nest – which is quite a glorious sight – but then there are those splendid occasions when it’s feeding time, and the parent eagle (it’s hard to tell the males from the females) rises and we see those little eaglets emerge into view, eager to devour their next meal. It’s incredible how the feeding of those baby birds seems in the moment to dwarf anything else going on in the world. Libya? Japan? D.C.? Madison? Yeah, yeah, in a minute. . . but first I have to watch these baby eagles being fed.
Actually, I saw something yesterday morning which pretty much horrified me and haunted me for the rest of the day. At that point, there were two eaglets in the nest (the last egg hadn’t yet hatched) who were being fed by one of their parents. All seemed to be fine until the older/larger of the two babies suddenly began snapping at its young/smaller sibling – apparently irritated about having to share its food – and within a few seconds, it was pecking at its sibling’s head with all its newborn might. Just like that, the smaller eaglet seemed to collapse and just laid there, completely still. I actually yelled NOOOOO at the screen – and was grateful that my office door was closed, so that nobody heard my spontaneous outburst. The little eaglet actually looked dead for about a minute or so before it finally seemed to stir awake – but looking very peaked, with its eyes half shut and its head barely lifted off the floor of the nest. . . which made it all but impossible for it to get any of the food which the parent eagle was dishing out. (It was interesting to watch the parent bird try to feed the smaller eaglet, but the bigger eaglet was right there to intercept pretty much each and every attempt – and as I walked away from the computer screen (it was time for our departmental recital) I had this sinking feeling that I might have seen the last of the smaller/younger eaglet. (I guess such a suvival of the fittest scenario is common in the raptor world.) But as of today, the little tyke seems to be holding his own, so the disturbing scene I witnessed seems to have been nothing but a temporary setback.
When the feedings occur, one hears those little eaglets chirping like crazy- but otherwise, watching the eagle’s nest webcam is mostly an exercise in silence. . . blissful, tranquil silence. . . something which is in terribly short supply in this overly-connected, overly-wired world in which we live. It seems like every television program nowadays is drowning us in words- and/or noise- which makes the relative silence of this eagle’s nest so refreshing. And although there is something remarkable about what we’re seeing as we watch these eagles…. sometimes by the hour….. part of me thinks that this is only half of the appeal of this webcam. The other part is the quiet and simplicity of it- the fact that there is no color commentator pointing out what we’re seeing or telling us what to think or feel about what we’re watching. This is something so beautiful and compelling on its own, and the sponsors of this webcam know it! There is an onilne forum somewhere on which questions and comments can be posted- and there is also a number in the corner of the screen which shows you how many people are viewing the webcam at any moment. (The number constantly fluxuates, but over the last day or so has been well above 100,000.) But mostly it’s just the unadorned sight of that eagle’s nest- with no crawl at the bottom of the screen or fancy graphics assaulting our senses like one sees on just about every cable news outlet. And there aren’t those insanely annoying animated promos for the next show coming up. Best of all, there is nothing phony or premeditated here – no directors amping up the conflict for the sake of higher ratings – which is the curse of all Reality Television, which is the biggest misnomer in the history of entertainment. This eagle’s nest webcam is the ultimate Reality Television – nothing fancy at all and yet incredibly compelling. I started to type that I hope television takes notice and tries to do something like this themselves, except that I cannot conceive of TV doing this with any sort of purity of purpose or clarity of vision. They would surely ruin it. So let’s leave this to the devoted folks of the Raptor Resource Project, who obviously know what they’re doing. And if you don’t believe me, ask the tens of thousands of people who find it hard to tear their eyes from the screen when those eaglets are getting their next meal. It is the drama of life playing out in real time, and it is incredibly invigorating to see, especially if you’re a city slicker like me.
By the way, if you haven’t seen this for yourself, there are links both on my facebook wall and my wife’s – but otherwise, pull it up yourself at:
http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles
And you can make a donation by visiting:
http:www.raptorresource.org