[CINC] Bald Eagle nesting count from Peter Sharp

[Paul Jr. Petrich]

Ahoy from Santa Catalina Island,
 The trip out here from Long Beach yesterday at 12:30 p.m. ecountered a surge coming into the huge exit of the Long Beach Harbor, but few aboard noticed it. North facing Avalon had nothing.
 Today I hiked the Catalina Marathon. At the 13.7 mile mark, in Middle Ranch, Peter Sharp and his Bald Eagle restoration corps, set up a great water and aid station with cookies and brownies, along with the usual. But Peter made sure we hikers and runners became aware of the Bald Eagle success story on all of our Channel Islands. He had a telescope set up targeting a distant nesting pair in a tall Eucaliptus tree; the second year in a row they nested there. One was an orange tagged eagle from his Catalina project, the other was a blue tagged eagle from our northern CINP. According to Peter, there are currently 7 nesting pairs on Catalina Island, 2 on Santa Cruz, and possible 1 on both West Anacapa and Santa Rosa Is. The latter two possibilities will be scouted out by Peter in the next couple weeks. All together, Peter says there are at least 25 Bald Eagles on his island, with sightings on San Clemente included. Another 35 to 40 are now in our CINP. He says this total of 65-70 has been stable for the past couple of years.
 Another sighting of interest to the CINC, was of one Lisa Anderson, of IPCO, running by this slow hiker at the 6 mile mark ( we hikers started 30 min earlier). She was recorded to have finished the 26.2 miles in 6 hours plus 43 sec. The route is especially challenging for runners, in that the route meanders up and down an elevation change from sea level to 15,50 ft. Congrats Lisa!     Paul Petrich 		 	   		  
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