Biologists rejoiced last week when an apparently healthy bald
eagle egg was discovered in a treetop nest on Santa Cruz Island.
Due to the devastation of DDT poisonings, no known bald eagle has
hatched on the Channel Islands since 1949. The Institute for
Wildlife Studies has been working to reintroduce the endangered
bird to the northern Channel Islands since 2002, releasing 46
juvenile birds with mixed results. The egg – which is the most
promising indicator so far that a stable bald eagle population may
eventually return to the Channel Islands – is the product of two
young eagles from a similar, though unsuccessful, program on
Catalina Island. Biologists’ fingers are crossed, as the egg is
expected to hatch sometime in mid-April.
