|
|
|
THE FORUM
|
20-Apr-23, 07:08:26 AM
|
|
24592
|
Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Re: Eagles Liberty & Patriot return early to nest site..Turtle Bay (update)
|
on: 08-Nov-09, 07:41:01 AM
|
|
An eagle lands on a branch Friday by a nest near the Highway 44 bridge in Redding.
Patriot and Liberty are back atop their nest in downtown Redding.
And this time, it is not a false alarm, said Terri Lhuillier, a Redding science teacher who regularly spends her evenings watching bald eagle activity around the nest from the bike path between the Monolith and Highway 44 at Turtle Bay.
Earlier this month, there were questions whether a younger female eagle had replaced Liberty, she said, but over the last week and a half, the popular Redding eagle mom seems to have returned.
Terri Lhuillier and her son, Jimmy, 12, both of Redding, look at the eagles at their nest near the Highway 44 bridge from the trail behind Turtle Bay on Friday.
Terri Lhuillier and her son, Jimmy, 12, both of Redding, look at the eagles at their nest near the Highway 44 bridge from the trail behind Turtle Bay on Friday.
"It looks like her to me," Lhuillier said.
The locally famous pair of bald eagles appeared to make their annual return last month, but then Lhuillier and others keeping a close eye on the nest noticed that one of them had the feathers of a young eagle. Although the bird had a white hood, there was a mix of brown feathers on its face - an indicator that the bird was three or four years old.
Questions abounded about whether Patriot, the male eagle, had a new partner or if it was a new pair all together.
"It is really hard to tell bald eagles apart," Lhuillier said.
The birds had earned their names through a Redding.com poll after they won their nest back from a California Department of Transportation effort to move them away from Highway 44 bridge construction in 2007.
Having first built the nest in 2004, the pair raised eaglets there the past three years - including a rare eaglet trio in March.
Watching the eagles through a spotting scope, Lhuillier said the birds appear to be Patriot and Liberty.
"We have not seen that immature in over a week," she said.
Living along the Sacramento River just south of the nest and Highway 44, Richard Downs said he has seen the pair of eagles buzz by his home two or three times and they look to be Patriot and Liberty.
He even got a close look at the male - the smaller bird of the pair - earlier this week when it perched in a tree near his yard.
"That eagle that was in our tree looked like the male eagle from before," Downs said.
Patriot and Liberty or not, the eagles had better get their feathers primed for a premier.
Caltrans is set to start broadcasting images from a camera affixed above the nest at Turtle Bay onto the Internet on Dec. 2, said Denise Yergenson, Caltrans spokeswoman in Redding. A premier event, featuring talks by eagle experts and a highlight reel from the raising of last year's eaglets, is set for noon that day at Turtle Bay Exploration Park.
The agency is printing up posters that mimic movie posters. Patriot and Liberty are the headliners.
"What were we going to put, 'The birds?' " Yergenson said. "We are assuming it is Patriot and Liberty."
|
|
|
|
|
Loading...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
