He Has a Name

Two weeks ago my friend who owns the barn where I board saw an eagle at their house.   I was whining that I had never seen an eagle.   Not once, never.   On Thursday I was driving home from the barn, glanced to my left, and saw a white head out in a field.   Screech (not really), turned around, and drove into the open gate of a winery.   Sure enough, an adult eagle on the ground with some dead snack.   Wow, was I ever excited!   I didn't really care that I was so far away, I took photos.   Then I saw two more soaring nearby.   The adult left the food and ended up on the far hill, just watching, while one of the juveniles mantled and ate the snack.   

When I got home and downloaded the photos, I saw the tags on one of the juveniles.   After some searching on the Internet, I located the tagging information and sent off an email to UC Santa Barbara for more details.   They forwarded the message on to the island manager at the Channel Islands research group that monitors the nesting pairs.   I received this information about the tagged eagle.

A-87 hatched in March/April of 2013, was tagged in May, and fledged in July.   It is a male and his name is America Strong.   Pretty cool, huh?   

 I downloaded these photos of A-87 when he was a baby eaglet and they were tagging him.

I can't give credit for these photos because the photographer wasn't identified.   I took them from the forum set up for the Channel Island eagles.   

Seeing an eagle, no matter how far away, is thrilling.   Finding out one of them has a name is just rather cool, at least for a nature lover like me.