It’s time to look back on 2023! Check our blog between Christmas and New Year’s for a variety of stories and memories of 2023 from the staff and volunteers of the Wildlife Center of Virginia.
Hello again, little human. My, how you’ve fledged!
Obviously, Buddy the Bald Eagle doesn’t think in English – but if he did, I like to imagine that’s what was going through his head when he saw my little boy again.
During the month of October, the Wildlife Center helped organize and facilitate a book tour with author Christy Gove to celebrate the publication of her latest work, Bailey the Black Bear Needs Help! One of the stops along the tour was at the Wildlife Center itself, and I was delighted to bring my two-and-a-half-year-old son to the reading. As anyone who’s spent much time around toddlers would guess, he was much more interested in climbing, running, and romping through the audience than sitting still and listening!
Instead, I led him out back to revisit the education ambassador raptors’ enclosures. He’d seen them a few times before, but this time was different. These days he’s big enough (and brave enough) to walk right up to their enclosures on his own, bringing him eye-to-eye with wildlife that most kids only get to see in storybooks – like Buddy!
I know what he was thinking since he told me: “Look, Daddy! Big bird!” To this day, I still wonder what Buddy must have been thinking after deciding to fly down to the free-standing perch that’s closest to the viewing pane. Buddy certainly recognizes my face, since we work together almost every day that I’m at the Center, and he’s seen me holding (a younger version of) my boy in that same spot by the railing months ago. Does he remember my little one’s face on a much smaller body? Are his latent parental instincts strong enough to realize the two of us are a part of the same flock? I’m not sure, but Buddy was definitely curious.
Just like wild eagles, Buddy can regularly be heard making different vocalizations related to socializing, excitement, perceived danger, etc. Not this time! Buddy was mostly silent, tilting his quizzical head every so often. After spending about five or ten minutes sizing each other up, my son cheerfully took off down the row to see Hudson the Gyrfalcon and Buddy flew back to one of his swinging perches.
It’s little moments like these that end up staying with me as the years go on. Perhaps the same is true for our animal ambassadors, too.
Just wait and see, Buddy – he’ll be soaring in no time!
— Alex Wehrung, Outreach Public Affairs Manager