Washington, DC - High in a tree at the National Arboretum,
there's a crack in a shell. We know the bald eagles as the First Lady and Mr.
President. The couple is waiting to meet one of their babies.
It's not exactly the White House, but they built their home
of sticks. The first lady laid the eggs in February. They are the first nesting
pair of bald eagles in D.C. since 1947.
The Eagle cam showed us the cracked egg just before
midnight on Wednesday, March 16, and it will soon reveal an eaglet.
"Over the next up to 12, 24, or 48 hours, the eaglet
is going to be doing everything it can to force its way through that hole, make
it bigger, and when it steps out, when it splits out, you're going to see a wet
chick, wet eaglet, that's going to take a few days to dry off," said Dr.
Richard Olsen, the director of the U.S. National Arboretum.
Unlike labor and delivery, mom and dad don't help the
eaglet break free. It's the first step in the survival of the fittest.
A field trip here is like an open text book for kids.
"They are all learning about birds at school. So it's
exciting for them to see, you know when they see things in the sky, that we can
tell them there's an actual eagle's nest," said Jen, a mom who only wished
to reveal her first name.
The public is held back 330 feet from the tree that holds
the nest. We learned the eaglets will eat fish from the Anacostia River,
brought back by mom and dad.
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