I’ve been craving a half-decent White-Bellied Sea Eagle sighting for a while now. And considering our wedding anniversary was fast approaching, I decided to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, and book a little mini break down at Jervis Bay with the husband.
We have White-Bellied Sea Eagles locally. You might have seen them flying up to the escarpment, a freshly caught fish (or sea snake, octopus or very occasionally a penguin) between their talons, a line of noisy crows following them. That is pretty much the extent of my luck here; a brief sighting as they fly past or soar over the ocean. However, Booderee National Park is a stronghold of these amazing birds of prey, so much so that they are classed as the guardians of the Indigenous people living in Wreck Bay and are also the emblem for the park itself. Given that we could stop off at Silos Estate for a spot of wine-tasting on the way down, my lack of Sea Eagle sightings was a problem that I could not only easily solve, but the solution could turn out to be pretty damn tasty too!
I usually spot the WBSE pretty much as soon as we get into Huskisson, but to increase our chances we decided to make our way to Murray’s Beach in the National Park itself. The first bird we saw swooped in after circling high over the ocean and headed for a tree off in the distance. Now, if you’ve never seen one of these birds in the wild, it has to be said they are huge with a wing span of up to 2.2 metres and are Australia’s second largest bird of prey after the Wedge-Tailed Eagle.
Matt and I looked at each other, then back to the newly landed bird, then back at each other and, before a thought had even formed in my mind, my husband was making his way down and starting the long, soft-sand walk. It was starting to spit with rain, a break after we had battled torrential downpours. I quickly followed after him. We had no sooner travelled maybe a quarter of the way towards the bird than it took to the air again and we watched as it swept past us, around the corner and out of sight. We haven’t had a moment like this for a while, a real chase, and there was no way we were going to give up and head back to the car. And so we turned and walked VERY briskly towards the rock shelf to gain a better view.
By the time I caught up to my husband he was already pointing excitedly at not one, but two beautiful eagles sitting in a nearby tree! WBSEs pair up permanently and they maintain their territory year round so it was kind of lovely to see these two together with the one I’ve chosen to pair up permanently with by my side. It’s breeding season right now (May-October) so love was definitely in the air, but as much as I love my husband, he better not get any ideas. My nesting days are most certainly over!
