When Janet Challender was walking from the Hollin Hall Senior Center to her car around 2 p.m. on Oct. 15, as she rounded the corner, suddenly, out of the sky, two bald eagles intertwined with each other “crashed into the parking lot like a meteor,” she said.
The birds, wide-eyed and alert, then seemed to quietly rest on the pavement. As the 15 or so bewildered onlookers watched, amazed to see two eagles up close, to their great relief, they observed that the eagles were breathing. The birds’ “audience” was eager to find a solution.
The center’s director, Alexa Fuerth, asked everyone to keep their distance to help protect the birds. About 10 seniors and center staffers made a loose circle of vehicles and bodies around the birds to keep the curious at a distance, especially since they expected parents to be arriving soon to pick up their children from A Child’s Place, the child care center there.
The eagles watched their fans intently, but they barely moved.
Fuerth made several calls to government officials and wildlife rescue organizations. Around 4 p.m., Mitchell Mansfield from the Fairfax County Police Department’s Animal Protection Unit arrived in a white van. He said he came immediately from a training in the Dulles Airport area when they got the call.
Mansfield said he would try to capture the eagles and take them to a wildlife rehabilitator. After discussing the challenge with Fuerth and others, Mansfield threw a red towel toward the birds to cover them and instantly, they separated and flew up and away in a startling “whoosh.” They did not appear to be injured.
“Fighting is common among bald eagles and occasionally they will trap each other when their feet lock together during combat,” said Jeff Cooper, Wildlife Biologist with the Nongame Bird Program, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. “Eagles fight over territory and food resources.”
Fuerth said, “I am very grateful to all our members and staff who were so compassionate. It was heartfelt to see how many people stepped up and helped. It was really emotional to see the birds fly away.
“We send a special thanks to the Fairfax County police for coming and to the Owl Moon Raptor Center that was working to find a rehabilitation center for them in case they were injured,” she said.
Excitement at the senior center usually centers around bus trips to Wegmans, Railroad Club talks or bingo. Bald eagles suddenly plummeting from the sky no doubt topped the usual thrills at this popular senior hangout.
On Bald Eagles
Mature bald eagles have a white head and tail, a yellow hooked bill, yellow talons and a chocolate-brown body. Adults can weigh from 10 to 14 pounds and have an eight-foot wingspan.
They are raptors, powerful flyers that grasp their prey with their sharp talons. They eat mostly fish, but also other birds, small mammals and snakes. Bald eagles build nests five to six feet in diameter and two to four feet tall, usually near water, in Northern Virginia typically on the Potomac and Occoquan Rivers.
In the lower 48 states, by 1963, bald eagle numbers had plunged to 417 known nesting pairs from around 100,000 nesting bald eagles in the 1700s. Scientists determined that DDT and other pesticides’ compounds moved up the food chain and thinned eggshells so severely that the shells broke and chicks did not hatch. In 1967, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) listed the bald eagle as endangered. After Congress banned DDT in 1972, the numbers began to rise and by 2007, FWS officials announced the bald eagle’s recovery and removed it from the endangered species list. Bald eagles are protected under other laws. The bald eagle is the United States’ national bird.