Given the hoo-ha whipped up about the possibility of reintroducing white-tailed eagles back to East Anglia I was interested in seeing the lengths to which Americans go to celebrate their national bird - the bald eagle (a close relative of the white-tailed eagle).
Around this time of year there are eagle days in Iowa, Idaho, Oklahoma and Illinois. In Utah , Connecticut and Wisconsin you have to wait until February, South Dakota goes for March, Alaska opts for November and that's where I stopped looking. But the tone of all these events is highly celebratory. These local communities are chuffed to bits that they have eagles that have made such a good population recovery and you get the impression that the more bald eagles there are, the happier people are.
And these are people who are living with eagles - they might be expected to know a thing or two about them!
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
I don't think that we are any different to the USA in celebrating the birds we have. A few years ago I met Derek Moore standing on top of New Fancy View in the Forest of Dean looking for Goshawk (another bird that some would be wary of) and on that day the viewing platform was full of people seeking to turn dots in the distance into a bird of prey. I think the difference to the American people is that we have lost a lot of our wildlife and the argument is now about how we put it back. I am sure if Golden and Sea Eagles were naturally all around we would be out there watching them as we do already with Honey Buzzard at various locations and Red Kite at Gigrin.
That does remind me, Susan asked me a question on an earlier blog entry about a comment I made about artificial feeding. Sorry Susan, I have only just picked it up. One question I do have about re-introductions is knowing when the project can be deemed successful and when you should stop supplementary feeding and let them get on with it. Sometimes we do carry on feeding for our sake so we can see the birds and not necessarily for theirs. At the moment this could apply to some red kite sites but we are nowhere near that for others.
The Cotswold Water park sightings website
My Flicker page