Many people often ask, “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?”, or” Where were you when the first plane hit the Twin Towers on September 11th?” While watching the valiant efforts of the rescue team today checking in on the eaglet, I felt this weird feeling come over me, similar to what I felt while watching the second plane hit the Twin Towers.
My fellow educator Joe Krumrie was conducting our 3:00 program in our first floor classroom. There were about 30 people in the class. The class had learned about eagles and were in the process of watching Harriet The National Eagle Center’s thirty one year old Bald Eagle eat her lunch. Then the rope was tied around the tree, and all eyes turned towards the big screen television located in our classroom. I was in the back room watching the events unfold, but when I saw the rope, I too wanted to watch on the big screen. So I joined the folks in the classroom and did some commentary on what was going on in the nest to the visitors. Then I looked at Harriett. There she was eating her lunch, and no one, not even her handler Joe, was watching her. Harriett has been on The Jay Leno Show, The Colbert Report, The Bonnie Hunt Show, The Today show several times, and most local media outlets, but for once in her career as an Educational Ambassador, Harriett was being upstaged!
It was riveting to watch!
I don’t think Harriett really cared. She had her lunch!
That’s when I started thinking, “I bet I will be telling my grandkids someday, that I remember where I was, when the baby eaglet that folks call Harmon, was rescued.”
As an environmental educator, this will be a story that I will reference for a long time, but as I write this, I do not know the ending to the story. Whatever it is, we have, and will continue to learn a lot about this magnificent creature, that we just happen to call our National Emblem, the Bald Eagle.
It is now up to The Raptor Center to do, what they do best, take care of our magnificent raptors.