Love is in the air and on the ground: White-Bellied Sea Eagles

It was our 14th wedding anniversary the other day. In a way, I was kind of annoyed that we got to 14 years of wedded bliss (and some not so blissful moments) because one of my favourite numbers is 13 and now I’m feeling all out of kilter 🤣 We try to celebrate in some way every year. This year it was a quiet affair (probs not the best choice of words for an anniversary post 😅😇) but I decided to do cake and bubbles at 4PM, the time our ceremony started. Two glasses in and Matt was waxing lyrical about how the ‘cake’ had gone straight to his head. Right…

We spotted this pair of White-Bellied Sea Eagles, separately at first, at Murray’s Beach, Jervis Bay. I really love Sea Eagles but we just don’t see them that often. We have them flying over the house very occasionally on their way back from the ocean and up the escarpment and for me, that’s a stop everything, drop everything kind of moment. As soon as I step foot into Jervis Bay though, I see them pretty much straight away.

The first bird we spotted swooped in after circling high over the ocean and headed for a tree off in the distance. Matt and I looked at each other and then looked back over to the newly landed bird, back at each other and before a thought had even formed in my mind, my husband was already making his way down and starting the long, soft sand walk. At this point it was starting to spit with rain, a break after we had battled torrential downpours. It was good enough for me and I quickly followed after him.

We had no sooner travelled maybe a quarter of the way towards the bird and it took to the air again and we swivelled on our heels and 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.

My body was not playing nice at this point and I almost stopped. So glad I didn’t though because as I struggled to the top of the rocks and looked up at 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!