Eagles symbol of American strength while Floridians continue to rebuild after Hurricane Ian
SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. - One year after Hurricane Ian slammed into southwest Florida, the damage can still be seen everywhere.
Sanibel and Captiva Islands are slowly coming back to life, but there is still a long way to go.
"Some folks are not able to return to their home, which is really upsetting because people were here because they love it here," shared Aubrey Albrecht, a shorebird biologist who works on Sanibel, who is bouncing around the island in her pickup truck.
Eagles have become a sign of hope for residents.
Today, she's checking on some island residents who are home and thriving. Albrecht works for the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation and part of her job is monitoring bald eagle nests.
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"They typically don’t start laying eggs until after Thanksgiving, but they start working on their nests this time of year," she said while looking up a nest on Captiva.
Hurricane Ian wiped out all ten eagle nests in the area. But Albrecht noticed something amazing shortly after the storm passed on Sept. 28 of last year.
Some of the birds rebuilt their nests in two weeks, according to experts.
"It was mid-October when I got to do my first post-storm survey and some of the eagles had already fully rebuilt their nests after losing the whole thing. So, they got right to work," she recalled.
Just like the people below them, these symbols of American strength immediately started picking up the pieces.
"I didn’t really have a concept of how long it took them to build, but we learned that they could build a nest in about two weeks’ time," said Albrecht.
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Some rebuilt in the exact spot they were before the storm.
Some residents were unable to return to their homes.
Shawnlei Breeding manages Eaglewatch, an Audubon Society program monitoring eagle nests around Florida. She said an eagle's resilience is something to behold.
"If their whole tree is knocked down, they just look for a suitable tree nearby, carry on, and rebuild. They are very hardwired to nest and to reproduce. They just kind for shrug it off and do what they need to do and start again," explained Breeding.
On Sanibel, progress is slow, but evident. Albrecht said those returning home can look to the sky for inspiration, much like she did.
"Sometimes when I felt kind of hopeless, like things would never be the same, the birds did give me hope. Because they rebuilt, and they nested successfully, and they proved that this is still their home, and they were going to rebuild here. They were determined to make it work, so I felt kind of the same way," said Albrecht.