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.
What a great idea! This year we shall certainly be celebrating our sea eagles - 10 years of the viewing hide at Loch Frisa www.rspb.org.uk/.../index.asp and 25 years since the first sea eagle chick hatched in the wild, here on Mull - added to that this year has been named the Year of Biodiversity - a lot to celebrate. On Mull, the sea eagles bring in an estimated £2m to the Island through tourism - people coming on holiday specifically to see them, from B&B's, hotels, wildlife trips and local shops and eateries etc. Also half the money raised from people visiting the hide is ploughed back into good causes on the Island - In 2009 £10,000 will be paid out to local groups such as the Brownies, local care home, schools, the Choir - a whole raft of groups that benefit from this magnificent bird. Let the party begin!