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DALLAS — Franklin Klock was unflappable with a golden eagle perched on his left hand sheathed in a heavy leather glove.
He was equally at ease holding a bald eagle for the program he presented Saturday afternoon at Wild Birds Unlimited in the Dallas Shopping Center.
A naturalist with the Carbon County Environmental Education Center, Klock showed the birds individually to the audience of approximately 50 adults and children who sat in rapt attention of the raptors, listening to the lesson about their history, habitat and habits.
Klock held nothing back as he talked about what they eat, where they live and how they poop.
“If it were us, we go number one and number two,” he said. “Birds go number three. It comes from the same spot.”
Goldie, the female golden eagle, tethered by her legs to a leash held by Klock, raised her tail and shot a stream onto the drop cloth underneath them. “We affectionately call it white wash,” he said, describing the consistency and color of the excrement.
Far from being a waste of time, the 90-minute, free program fascinated Maureen Alleva, of Wilkes-Barre, who stood within 10 feet of the birds. She had come to buy supplies for her bird feeder and walked into Klock’s presentation.
“I have seen them down by the river, down by the Susquehanna,” Alleva said.
She was awestruck with the white-capped bald eagle, Rennie, the smaller of the female pair. “She’s beautiful,” Alleva said.
The birds cannot fly due to injuries and will always be captive at the center in Summit Hill. Different in size and species, they reacted differently while on display. Goldie screeched and fidgeted while Rennie quietly swiveled her head from side-to-side.
“She’s got beautiful piercing eyes,” Klock said of Goldie. Flying at an altitude of 1,000 feet, her field of view is 4 square miles. “It can easily see a rabbit from 1,000 feet up,” he said.
Mice, rats, fish, snakes and small mammals are their prey. Tales of eagles swooping down and carrying away babies are nonsense, Klock said.
The description by Ben Franklin of eagles as “common buzzards” isn’t far off though, Klock acknowledged. The birds do scavenge and will eat roadkill and follow hawks and turkey vultures to carrion. Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird rather than the “thieving, marauding bird of poor moral character,” Klock said.
Todd and Jennilyn Dyer. of Pittston, attended with their children, Aidan, 7, and Abigayle, 6. The family hikes together and have seen the birds in the wild, they said.
Eagles are abundant and no longer on the endangered species list, Klock said. Kids, on the other hand, are spending more time in front of computers and electronic devices and less time outdoors, he added, encouraging them to silence their smartphones and tablets and go outside.
“The world is a huge place. It doesn’t fit on the screen,” Klock said.
