In a relationship that began in scandal, Washington’s most famous winged couple — a pair of bald eagles known as Mr. President and Lotus, short for Lady of the United States — have at least one eaglet on the way.
The city’s wildlife biologist, Dan Rauch, said he and other experts took their annual “eagle flyover” in a helicopter this week for a bird’s-eye view of nests in the region and counted 14 active nests of bald eagles, including the first couple’s at the U.S. National Arboretum in Northeast Washington.
“It’s exciting to see,” Rauch said of the egg in a phone interview on Thursday. “They took their sweet time this year and are a little late from their normal time of laying, but it looks like they’re doing well and now someone’s on the nest all the time now.”
It’s been a bit of a soap opera life for the birds of prey.
Mr. President, also known as Mr. P, first showed up at Kingman Island more than a decade ago. He found his first mate — an eagle who was named First Lady — in December 2013. The feathered couple built a nest in a tulip poplar tree that winter near the arboretum’s azalea garden. They made history, and attracted fans on social media, because it marked the first time a bald eagle pair had set up a nest at the arboretum in more than 60 years. Experts said the couple, like other bald eagles, adapted to louder areas such as D.C., becoming tolerant of noise and air traffic.
They welcomed their first eaglet in 2014 and went on to have a total of eight hatch. They had their last chick in 2018, but it later died of West Nile virus. Bald eagles typically mate for life as long as they’re successfully having eaglets together. But if there’s a problem, they’re known to switch up and find new partners.
Mr. President and First Lady failed to produce more offspring. First Lady would take off in warmer months and come back in the fall. During one of her trips away, Mr. President appeared to stray and was caught with other female suitors in the nest.
Sometimes, First Lady chased them off with her “talons out,” flying toward the nest at 50-60 mph, Rauch said. The two reconciled, but she laid no more eggs. Then on Valentine’s Day 2022, she flew the coop. This time for good. The next day, the younger Lotus moved in.
She became a mom later that year, and they successfully hatched more eaglets for several years.
They moved a few years ago to a setting about a mile away from the home Mr. President shared with his ex-mate, building a new nest in a white oak tree overlooking the Langston Golf Course. Where the old nest was the subject of a 24-hour live web feed that made the couple social media stars, the new home has no camera peering in from a nearby tree and is in a more secluded, wooded area of the arboretum that is farther from trails and harder for humans to see. Rauch said the best spot to see the eagle pair is along the tee box of the golf course’s 15th hole.
Like any celebrity couple, the pair has also hit a few rocky patches, the common denominator being Mr. President. Last spring, another female eagle showed up in the nest, making it seem as if she was just passing through the area. Then Lotus took off from the nest for several weeks. Last spring, the couple did not produce any offspring. Why remains a mystery.
Rauch said he was concerned the pair wouldn’t reproduce again this spring. Mr. President is at least 17 years old — a bit on the older side for bald eagles, which typically live to be about 20 in the wild. Lotus, likely now about 9 years old, could be getting tired of him or bored. Rauch said Mr. President “has had a really good run for a bald eagle in the wild,” and he may be “gradually becoming less reproductive.”
Rauch said he believes Lotus laid the new egg sometime during the weekend of March 21. Eagles have a roughly 34- to 36-day gestation period, so he expects the eaglet to hatch by the end of April.
“I was worried,” Rauch said. “I thought if they had another nest fail maybe they’d moved on to somewhere else or they’d split up.” He said he was relieved to spot the two of them taking turns this week incubating the egg on the nest at the arboretum.
The first couple are not the only expecting — or proud — parents.
Three eaglets recently hatched at a nest in the Accokeek, Maryland, area where the Piscataway Creek and Potomac River meet, according to Rauch. Another nest near the Belle Haven Marina in Alexandria has had three chicks hatch for three years in a row. Experts are hoping that happens again this spring but aren’t sure how many eggs are there.
Bald eagles have made a huge comeback across the country and in the D.C. region due to several factors: bans on pesticides, the passage of the Endangered Species Act in the 1970s, improvements to their habitats and clean air and water efforts.
Nationally, there are about 71,000 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the Lower 48 states, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s most recent data available — a big comeback from the 1960s, when there were fewer than 500 breeding pairs. Bald eagles were removed from the endangered species list in 2007, but they remain protected under several federal laws. The bald eagle officially became the national bird in December 2024 when President Joe Biden signed a bill designating it as such.
Rauch said the sight of Mr. President and Lotus with a new egg conjured both happiness and a sense of nostalgia.
He has witnessed Mr. President face several ups and downs: New mates, new eaglets, lost mates and new homes.
One year, he said, Mr. President couldn’t find enough fish in the Anacostia River because there was too much sediment there and he instead had to switch to groundhogs.
“I remember when Mr. President first showed up at Kingman Island and he’d bother the osprey there as they hunted for fish,” Rauch said. “He was a bit of a rebel rouser back then.”
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