Last Saturday, the U.S. Forest Service held the first bald eagle count of the winter and spotted bald eagles, but none at Lake Hemet. Local federal and state biologists, in partnership with many volunteers, numbered 38 observers who spotted seven eagles Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
At both Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake, two adults and an immature bald eagle were counted. A seventh eagle was seen at Lake Perris.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe eagle-eyed citizen scientists at Lake Perris were lucky to catch a sighting of an immature golden eagle as well,\u201d wrote Robin Eliason, district wildlife biologist for the Forest Service\u2019s Mountaintop Ranger District in the San Bernardino National Forest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith more winter storms in the forecast, we expect more migrant bald eagles to be moving into the area over the next few weeks,\u201d she added. \u201cOur highest numbers of bald eagles are usually in January and February.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several dozen bald eagles typically spend their winter vacations around Southern California\u2019s lakes. They migrate here because their prey animals (fish and ducks) are no longer available to them in the cold northern regions as ice covers the lakes and rivers.<\/p>\n
The Forest Service emphasized that the success of the eagle counts is entirely dependent on the volunteers. The next count is Saturday, Jan. 9. If you are interested in participating, plan to meet at the Lake Hemet Grocery Store at 8:30 a.m. for orientation or contact Ann Bowers at annbowers@fs.fed.us or 909-382-2935 for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last Saturday, the U.S. Forest Service held the first bald eagle count of the winter and spotted bald eagles, but none at Lake Hemet. Local federal and state biologists, in partnership with many volunteers, numbered 38 observers who spotted seven eagles Saturday morning. At both Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake, two adults and an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":14403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n