Eagle Goes Viral

Betsy Kehne had been waiting for three decades for the bird perched a stone’s throw from her window.
    At five years old, she’d grieved at learning that the pesticide DDT was pushing bald eagles to extinction.
    DDT was banned in 1972. By the end of the century, the number of nesting eagles in Maryland had increased sixfold to 260 pairs. Today, more than 2,000 bald eagles make their homes in the Chesapeake region, so that seeing them soaring overhead is no longer rare.
    But Kehne, Bay Weekly production manager and a hobbyist photographer, had never come close enough to get a shot.
    Now an eagle had come to her Southern Anne Arundel County home, perching a stone’s throw away on a neighbor’s Shady Side pier.
    She grabbed her Nikon D50 and ran for the shot.
    Still wearing in her bright-pink flannel pajamas covered with monkeys, she slid on her coat and husband Mark’s sandals.
    Tip-toeing closer to the white-headed bird, she snapped a picture at every step. The eagle never flinched. From behind a tree in her neighbor’s yard, Kehne got the picture she wanted.
    Posted on Bay Weekly’s Facebook page, Kehne’s eagle sparked a reaction.
    Within 40 minutes, her picture earned 32 likes, the highest ever for a Bay Weekly Facebook post. The buzz escalated to 114 likes, 11 shares and 29 comments in three hours.
    Today, the picture has 228 likes, 31 comments and 23 shares, each one multiplying Bay Weekly’s friendship.
    Go to www.facebook.com/bayweekly to see the eagle — and what’s new at Bay Weekly.