Backyard and Beyond

An adult Bald Eagle has been hanging out at Prospect Park for a few weeks. It’s even made the gossip pages of New York Magazine. It’s thought this is one of the nesting pair on one of the little islands in Jamaica Bay. Yes, nesting Bald Eagles in Brooklyn! (Making for the second city nest: a pair on Staten Island has been going strong for several years.) I set out last week to Prospect Park to see if I could see the bird. One block away from home, I saw an adult eagle overhead. It was heading south-ish over Sunset Park and may have just left Green-Wood. (All this is about 4 miles from the nest.)

I didn’t ever get to Prospect Lake. A second trip on the weekend was, however, eagle-less. It’s a good assumption this was a Jamaica Bay bird, but incidences of Bald Eagles sightings are increasing locally.

On Tuesday, in Green-Wood, a younger Baldie–it takes about four years for the full white head and white tail plumage in come in completely–was overhead. It was circling pretty low. I suspect it was scouting out Sylvan Water, the cemetery’s biggest body of water (which is much smaller than Prospect Park Lake).

To celebrate my February birthday in previous years, we’d go up to Croton Point Park, hoping to see eagles. When water bodies further north freeze, the fish-eating birds head south for open water. Croton Point could be a great place to see them.

But if you sit by the river’s mouth long enough, you eventually see the birds right where you are.