While driving to the nature park, from the passenger seat I selectively pick out only the dried pineapple from the package of Trader Joe’s Trek Mix handed to me by my husband. The slightly translucent, sugary pale yellow wedges glow a little in my palm like the wet agates I’ve collected from the Oregon coast.
On the trail, we meet a father and his daughter. She’s six years old at most. A large pair of binoculars hang from her small neck. She wears a print dress, leggings, and purple rubber boots. Blonde curls emphasize her blue eyes. She has the long dark lashes nature usually reserves for boys.
The father asks if we’ve seen eagles. His daughter wants to see a Bald Eagle and he’s hoping they’re looking in the right place.
They are.
Walking them back a few yards, I point out a large eagle’s nest in a tree on the far shore of the pond in front of us. The child holds the binoculars to her pretty eyes, swiveling her head to follow the line of sight of her father’s finger.
We talk about the size of the nest: Her father could stand in it. We talk about how it takes five years for Bald Eagles to gain their white heads and tail feathers. That female Bald Eagles look the same as the males, but larger.
As if on cue, first one, then a second Bald Eagle soars overhead. They’re returning to their nest.
The little girl holds the binoculars to her eyes, craning her neck upward trying to capture sight of the huge soaring birds while the geese and ducks in the pond scatter airborne in a cacophony of fright.
My husband photographs the eagles using the elongated lens of his camera, not a cellphone. He stoops his tall frame down to show the child images of one of the eagles-“See its white head and tail?”
She sees- Her first eagles, her spark birds, a magic wish granted. The eagles are real, not a make believe tale some adults tell a child that they will later discover was untrue.
Today, a six year old girl became a birder, and we were part of her magic wish.
JParadisi (Retired) RN Blog 