Arboretum eagle incubates her egg(s)

Good morning, DMV*! It’s Thursday, April 9.

I spoke Tuesday with Dan Rauch, fisheries and wildlife biologist for the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, about the National Arboretum’s eagle couple, which is expecting. (My former Washington Post colleague Dana Hedgpeth wrote about them last week.)

He had been to the arboretum the day before and saw activity in the nest, which he said was still visible from the arboretum but won’t be soon, after the trees leaf out.

“There’s a female in the nest, hunkered down,” he told me. “She’s incubating. You can see her wobble around a little. When eggs are in the nest, they don’t want to crush them. They have sharp talons. It looked like she was rolling something.”

He didn’t know how many eggs are in the nest. Last month, after I saw an eagle couple during a bird walk near the arboretum at Langston Golf Course, I called Dan to ask if they were the arboretum’s famous Mr. President and Lotus. He said he did think the female was Lotus, but the behavior and appearance of the male suggested it might be a different male. The birds are not tagged, so it’s hard to tell definitively, he said.

On Tuesday, Dan said he has yet to see the white blaze along the male’s chest, which would positively ID him as Mr. President.

“I think it’s him. But I haven’t seen anything definitive to prove it. It’s his territory. It’s his nest. It’s his mate. It’s possible another male moved in, but it’s hard to tell,” he said.

Dan and other experts observing eagle nests in the region have seen 14 active eagle nests this spring. They had GPS coordinates for 25, but he said heavy snowfall this winter may have destroyed some of the nests.

I’ll update you as the bird experts observe and collect more information.

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9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday: The Buddhist temple I go to in Silver Spring — Wat Thai D.C. — will have its annual Songkran festival to celebrate the Thai new year with traditional music and dance and stalls selling Thai food. I’ll be there.

Note that parking near the temple is limited, so you can take Metro or park at Glenmont station, where there will be free shuttle buses to the temple.

Jim Rice, 68, of Mount Rainier, Maryland, captured this image last week.

“Walking around Pine Lake in Wheaton Regional Park with my grandson last weekend, I spotted a red-wing blackbird perched on a cattail. Just as I prepared to snap the photo, the bird launched into the air,” Jim said in his submission.

“The timing was perfect, and fortuitous, as the bird spread its red-flecked wings at the exact right moment to capture its colorful wingspan. Serendipity!”

Share your photos of spring life in the DMV here.

* In case you’re wondering: The DMV is how residents here call the D.C. region, which includes Maryland and Virginia. People ask about this every few weeks. Now you know.

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