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Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 3/23/07 Section: News
After 200 years, bald eagle returns to its nest
Local woman spots first bald eagle in Phila. in over 200 years, but officials won't say where it is
Jesse Rogers
This season, Eagles fans finally have cause for celebration.
Bald eagle fans, that is: After a 200 year hiatus, the bird has returned to Philadelphia.
Philadelphia bird watcher Debbie Beer discovered a bald eagle's nest early last month after following a tip from a local truck driver who was passing the site on his way home.
"The sky was a beautiful orange and purple, and through my scope, I could see him perk his head up and poke around," Beer said. "It was just a very, very exciting experience for me."
The find gives Philadelphia - a city often linked to the national bird for its role in the country's road to independence - its first official bald eagle sighting for at least 200 years, according to the State Game Commission.
But state officials won't disclose the location of the nest, saying any human contact could frighten the two eagle parents into leaving the nest and abandoning their eggs.
Long pegged to the list of endangered species, biologists say safeguarding the nest is critical to the birds' survival.
Bald eagles are "particularly sensitive to foot traffic," said Douglas Gross, an endangered bird specialist with the State Game Commission. "They're more tolerant of vehicles going back and forth along the highway - for them that's sort of background noise."
But for bird enthusisasts, it seems as if the race is on to find the nest.
Keith Russell, a fellow bird watcher and friend of Beer, said he will wait until the state secures the birds' habitat, but is concerned that other bird enthusiasts will fail to do the same.
"That's the thing I keep hearing, that people want to see it," he said. "You could have people going there and disturbing the birds, preventing them from completing their breeding."Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said that, once biologists secure the habitat, the Commission will set up an area for observation, though the Commission is unsure how far away that spot would be.
Bald eagle fans, that is: After a 200 year hiatus, the bird has returned to Philadelphia.
Philadelphia bird watcher Debbie Beer discovered a bald eagle's nest early last month after following a tip from a local truck driver who was passing the site on his way home.
"The sky was a beautiful orange and purple, and through my scope, I could see him perk his head up and poke around," Beer said. "It was just a very, very exciting experience for me."
The find gives Philadelphia - a city often linked to the national bird for its role in the country's road to independence - its first official bald eagle sighting for at least 200 years, according to the State Game Commission.
But state officials won't disclose the location of the nest, saying any human contact could frighten the two eagle parents into leaving the nest and abandoning their eggs.
Long pegged to the list of endangered species, biologists say safeguarding the nest is critical to the birds' survival.
Bald eagles are "particularly sensitive to foot traffic," said Douglas Gross, an endangered bird specialist with the State Game Commission. "They're more tolerant of vehicles going back and forth along the highway - for them that's sort of background noise."
But for bird enthusisasts, it seems as if the race is on to find the nest.
Keith Russell, a fellow bird watcher and friend of Beer, said he will wait until the state secures the birds' habitat, but is concerned that other bird enthusiasts will fail to do the same.
"That's the thing I keep hearing, that people want to see it," he said. "You could have people going there and disturbing the birds, preventing them from completing their breeding."Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said that, once biologists secure the habitat, the Commission will set up an area for observation, though the Commission is unsure how far away that spot would be.
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dubs
posted 3/23/07 @ 6:07 AM EST
'For Beer and fellow bird enthusiasts, or "birders," the return of America's national symbol is a matter of pride.'
what a fantastically phrased sentence, just leaves you with that lingering thought in the back of your mind, you almost don't notice it, that it's beer, not the brid, that has returned as america's national symbol. (Continued…)
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