Male Bald Eagle Proves to be Way Better Stepdad Than My Buddy Steve
A Male Bald Eagle who was trying to hatch a rock ends up raising an eaglet. My buddy Steve could really learn some lessons.
By Jason Salmon · March 18, 2024
Opinion by Odd News Show’s Jason Salmon, once better friends with Steve.
A bald eagle named Murphy at the Wild Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis, clearly didn’t understand the first thing about how babies are made, but that didn’t keep him from becoming a dad. Just like my buddy Steve. Murphy the eagle sat on a rock thinking it would hatch into an eagle chick. My buddy Steve thought there were certain days of the month his girlfriend (who he also referred to as a chick) couldn’t get pregnant. Nature is full of morons.
Most of us have a version of my buddy Steve. He was so cool in high school - girls fawned over him and boys like me envied him. Then we grew up and realized Steve’s unpredictability may have been evidence he was just a nimrod. Murphy is clearly the Steve of the bald eagle community - he’s dealing with an old injury, he fights a lot, and both of them are now step dads. There’s two huge differences though. Steve isn’t nearly as comfortable with his baldness and he is not nearly as good at being a stepdad.
Murphy’s rock never hatched into an eaglet, but he was so aggressively protective of it that he was awarded guardianship of a rescue eaglet whose nest had been destroyed. That’s when Murphy’s paternal instincts kicked in. He stood guard and made sure the kid was nurtured, eating right, and getting stronger. Steve is more of a going out for the night type of step-dad. If he’s in charge of food, it is coming out of a can, and the only thing getting stronger is his kid’s resilience to disappointment.
Murphy even has his own place now to raise his new stepson. Steve lives at his 4th wife Linda’s place. They call it, “their place,” but everybody knows he lives at Linda’s. Murphy’s story is inspirational because he was just an eagle down on his luck with no prospects who found purpose in developing the next generation of his species. Who knows if that might also turn out to be Steve’s story?
We all do.
It will not.