Spotting the celebrity (eagle) couple of the arboretum

Good morning, DMV! It’s Tuesday, March 3.

I saw a celebrity couple during a bird walk this weekend at Langston Golf Course in D.C. — or at least I thought I did. (I’ll explain below.) It was exciting. I’d been following the ups and downs of their marital life for years.

You see, for my last few years at the Washington Post, I edited a lot of stories about Mr. President and Lotus — the famous eagle couple of the U.S. National Arboretum, which is next door to Langston Golf Course. I worked with longtime Post reporter Dana Hedgpeth, who covered their ups and downs: The couple moved from their nest that had an eagle cam to a nest closer to the golf course in 2023; they had two eaglets that year; they were expecting again last spring but no little ones appeared, and they were left with an empty nest.

My family and I saw their old nest during a hike a few years ago at the arboretum. Eagle nests are big. We saw the eagle cam setup that allowed viewers to click online and watch every move in the nest. We did not spot the eagles during that outing.

Then on Saturday, I went on a hike led by the National Links Trust, which oversees Langston Golf Course, and the DC Bird Alliance advocacy group. (The National Links Trust is the organization that manages Rock Creek, East Potomac, and Langston courses, though the Trump administration recently terminated their lease with the National Park Service.)

We saw lots of geese, ducks and a few eastern bluebirds. We saw a Carolina wren and listened for a moment to its loud pretty calls. But the birds I really wanted to see were the celebrity eagles. And my wish was granted, kind of.

We saw them perched together, high up on a distant tree. There are no leaves on the wintering trees yet, so they were easy to spot: They looked like a large dark lump on a branch. Viewed through binoculars, I could see the pair sitting next to each other — their white heads taking in the view around them.

We walked further through the golf course and also saw their huge nest.

To learn more, I reached out to Dan Rauch, a wildlife biologist with the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, who has been tracking the arboretum eagles for years. He sent me this photo he took of the pair last Friday, noting that the larger of the two is the female.

So, I asked Dan, were the eagles I spotted Saturday indeed Mr. President and Lotus?

Dan said he has been discussing this couple with a colleague. Based on the female eagle’s behavior and her presence in the nest, he does believe it is Lotus. But the male does not have the same markings as Mr. President or the same behavior.

Mr. President, Dan told me on a call, has a whitish streak on his chest, but this male eagle does not. This eagle also is not going to Mr. President’s usual perch on nearby Kingman Island.

“We’ve been seeing this guy [Mr. President] all the time — for 15 years. He’s pretty advanced in age,” Dan said. “So I don’t know whether this is a new male.”

Experts have not banded the eagles (with metal bands around the legs), so it’s hard to tell, he said.

In the meantime, Dan said now is the time of year that eagles lay eggs, so he’s monitoring the couple and plans to take a routine springtime “eagle flight” with the National Park Service this month to observe nests across the region.

I’ll reach out to learn more later. Stay tuned.

Tisha Reese, 51, of Potomac, Maryland, snapped this photo of cardinals at 1 p.m. yesterday.

“It looks like two but it isn’t 😀,” she wrote in her submission.