If you don't live in Washington, you probably think that the city is filled with monuments and government workers and nothing else - but we actually have an ecosystem that is friendly to wild animals - and not just the urban kind. Birds are returning to the skies above the District. Eagles returned to D.C. for the first time in 50 years in 2015 - so now there are three nests in Washington! And nests mean eaglets!
The first nest was speculated—and later confirmed—to be in the National Arboretum and then another one was discovered at the Metropolitan Police Department's training facility academy. And now, a third has been discovered at the West Campus of St. Elizabeth’s. The people monitoring the nest at the National Arboretum expect eaglets to hatch as early as today.
And now an even rarer bird has made an appearance. There is a pair of ravens nesting in D.C. for the first time in a century.
Two birds, one male and one female, were spotted nesting along the Potomac River, according to the D.C. Department of Energy & Environment. Fisheries and Wildlife biologist Dan Rauch calls the return of the ravens and eagles "two big milestones just in the last few years."
He told NBC, "It's a good barometer for environmental health. It's also a good barometer for those species in general."
The D.C. Department of Energy & Environment is keeping the ravens' location secret, so that they can nest in peace. The baby ravens are due early April. Baltimore may have the football team thanks to Edgar Allan Poe, but we have the real deal!
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE DC DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
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