So the birders park in a cul-de-sac out of the way of the trucks that rumble in and out of the factories and warehouses. They climb down a hill strewn with trash and set up tripods on a mound of crumbled brick and debris. They point binoculars, cameras or telescopes at the McMansion of a nest built to accommodate the eagles and their young. Then they wait.

When the eagles are nesting, one parent will head off in search of food while the other keeps vigil atop the eggs, hidden from view in the recesses of the nest. You could sit there for hours waiting for that shock of white to bob over the top. This reporter, endowed with less patience than even a novice birdwatcher, made a separate solo trip out to the creek in late March, when the winter chill still stuck to the wind. I froze my butt off, telephoto lens fixed on the nest, and the damn eagles never showed.

Today, I told the true story of two American bald eagles who built their nest on a toxic waste site that’s being turned into a major real estate development. Only in New Jersey!