‘They’re back together’: Bald eagle couple in Washington get back together after hiatus

Chime the bells.

The love birds Liberty and Justice — two bald eagles that have nested in a 110-foot tall oak tree on a property in Southwest Washington — are back together.

The pair have had a season of drama at the nest.

They had taken a break after they mated in mid-February and Liberty laid two eggs in the nest they’ve called home for 14 years. Justice took off from the nest and hadn’t been spotted for weeks, although many eagle watchers thought they had seen him. And then wildlife experts thought Liberty had also abandoned the eggs and nest after she flew away for a brief break, too.

The eagles are closely watched on a live eagle camera feed at www.eaglecam.org that’s run in part by the Earth Conservation Corps. The pair has hatched about 22 eaglets from the nest.

Eagle experts said the pair of eggs now in the nest are unlikely to hatch in mid-March because they haven’t been properly incubated.

On Friday, experts said Liberty and Justice had been seen together on the nest that morning and on Thursday afternoon.

“It looks like the two of them made up, and they’re back together,” said Tommy Lawrence, managing director at the Earth Conservation Corps.

Justice came back to the nest Thursday after being gone for about three weeks. It’s not clear where he was during that time. The conversation group had gotten more than 100 calls and emails about his whereabouts from as far away as South Carolina. But experts said it’s likely he stayed in the area.

While he was gone Liberty had two other male suitors who were named M2 and M3. She mated with one of them. But then she took off, probably because she was too stressed, according to eagle experts.

Plenty of eagle fans had watched closely and become concerned about the ups and downs at the nest. But experts said all of this is common eagle behavior and a sign that there’s a thriving and healthy eagle population in the D.C. region. The difference is that eagles don’t typically have a 24-hour camera that allows the world to look in on their nest and monitor them.

Often when there are plenty of eagles around, it isn’t uncommon for eagles to fight over a particular male or female eagle. Last year, a female bald eagle was fighting over another male bald eagle, Mr. President, at another closely watched nest at the U.S. National Arboretum in Northeast Washington. His mate, the First Lady, wasn’t too pleased.

This season, Mr. President and the First Lady have yet to lay any eggs in their nest.

Regarding the nest in Southwest on the police academy grounds, eagle experts said they expected that since the pair had been together for so long they were likely to get back together. But it’s unlikely Liberty and Justice will have any eaglets this season.

Eagles are fertile for only two weeks, and that cycle stops once they start incubating eggs. Liberty had spent time incubating the two eggs in the nest before she took off, so experts predict she’s probably missed her window.

“She had started incubating, so her fertile cycle has stopped and the chances of her laying eggs now are slim,” Lawrence said. “It’s kind of late in the season for anything to happen.

“They’ll likely take a year off from raising young.”

The eagles appear to have buried the eggs deep in the nest, which is not uncommon.

As for the other two male suitors that had been chasing after Liberty, Lawrence said, they probably left the nest because Liberty stopped paying attention to them or Justice may have intervened a bit — off camera.

With all of the drama, it seems like the lyrics from the Stylistics’ “Break Up to Make Up” song is in order.

“Break up to make up, that’s all we do/ First you love me then you hate me, that’s a game for fools.”