The PBS program NATURE will air AMERICAN EAGLE on Sunday evening at 8:00pm. This show was first presented in November 2009. In the Hampton Roads area of Virginia it will show on WHRO TV Cox channel 15 and 715, Charter channel 5 and 782. It will rebroadcast Monday evening at 9:00pm on WHRO World Cox channel 107.
The two photos above are of “Pioneer.” This is a 25 year-old male bald eagle that was hatched and banded in 1985 in its nest on Jones Creek off the Rappahannock River north of Warsaw, VA, by Dr Mitchell Byrd and Keith Cline. Over a 20 year breeding period, he likely produced about 40 eaglets. Many of them and their offspring are now nesting throughout Virginia. In 1985 there were 60 known breeding pair of bald eagles in Virginia. Today there are over 600 breeding pair.
 On January 20, 2010 he was picked up by Dinwiddie County Animal Control under some power lines about 5 miles west of Petersburg, VA. He was taken to rehabilator Joy Bulls who then transported him to Lisa Barlow, a rehabilator in Virginia Beach. Lisa brought him to me and she and I immediately knew his injuries were severe – an open talon wound and the under side of the left wing badly damaged at the wrist. Probably tried to sit on the power lines. On Jan 21 he was transported to the Wildlife Center of Virginia by Bobbi Monaghan, where he was carefully examined by Dr. Elizabeth Daut and the injuries determined to be non-treatable or reversible. He was humanely euthanized.
Reese Lukei