Photo by Bob Isenberg
Outside at “the Rock” during the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival, visitors use spotting scopes set up to see the peregrines and have all their questions answered.
The Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival was a great success! The weather was gorgeous, 70+° F . On Friday, numerous leader-led groups of birders stopped by to learn about the peregrines. On a following day, “the Rock” was another story with 30+mph winds and high surf so the gate to our special place where we set up our spotting scopes and chairs was locked. Without my truck and camper, I had no windbreak for my equipment.
On Friday, my daughter called from her inland ranch while I was at “the Rock” and said, “I have a Golden Eagle by my pond and it’s injured!” I told her what to do. She got it into a portable dog kennel with the help of two adults, two “tweeners” and one dog. Ninety minutes later and a quarter of a mile from where it was first found, it was secure and ready to be taken to town and Pacific Wildlife Care. They told us it was a male and had a large wound in the patagium* in the wing with a small whole in an unbroken bone. We’ll keep you up to date on its recovery.
Happy trails, Bob
*A thin membrane extending between the body and a limb to form a wing or winglike extension.
