Trailing Bartram, a bi-monthly Precipitate blog feature, investigates the flora and fauna of Florida.
Riding with a friend again along the Cady Way Trail one week, we made two new discoveries. The first—amazing convenience-store tacos—I won’t detail here, as readers may live too far away to enjoy their deliciousness. But the second made me gasp out loud. We were nearing the end of a 20-mile slow ride on a perfect, mid-seventies, slightly overcast December day. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a rather large bird. Its size, large white head, and darker brown body made me do a double take.
Yes, it was a bald eagle, and yes, it was hanging out at the retention pond behind Orlando’s Fashion Square Mall, the week before Christmas. I can’t share with you a photo of this particular eagle, as my approach with camera made him take rapid and soaring flight, but come to Florida and you will see birds of prey galore in the most unexpected places. (Hopefully your encounter won’t be as traumatic as my peacock-raising neighbor’s, but I would hold on tight to small tasty animals that you may have in your possession—Chihuahuas, baby peacocks… infants. Kidding, mostly.)
Bald eagles are also fairly common at and around the space coast—the Kennedy Space Center and the surrounding protected ecosystem. The Kennedy Space Center lies next to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and you can read about the preserve’s strong eagle presence here. The refuge was created around the space center in the 1960s, perhaps as a way to ensure that disturbances—environmental, noise, and otherwise—would not disturb people or developments (it is largely undeveloped and protected), and it seems to have been a boon for the area’s wildlife.
I’ve already been thankful on this blog, for grapefruits, but it’s time to be thankful to folks like Rachel Carson who sounded the alarm about DDT and eagle’s eggs in such a successful manner that I can now spot my friend Sam Eagle’s relative on a casual afternoon bike ride in the city.
As fellow Precipitate blogger Fred MacVaugh noted in an earlier post, “Thinking optimistically, ecologically-informed concern for nature and place may shift increasingly from national to local levels, from scenic preservation to local conservation, access, and ownership.” I think this is possible when we can see bald eagles on urban trails. I would hazard to guess that the diversity of people in age, race, gender, and ability that I see on the urban Orlando trails means that no, in fact, certain people are not against the national parks or the outdoors. Perhaps a love for these places comes from small moments in familiar places; seeing an eagle on “your” neighborhood bike trail, having a serendipitous encounter with a small, slow-moving reptile that could use a bit of human assistance; or simply participating in the backyard bird count one year and realizing just how many different kinds of creatures are right there in your own environment.
Leslie Wolcott, Staff Blogger