Join the Big Bear Bald Eagle Celebration

We're just over a few weeks into 2019, which means that we can, without too much fretting or fear, begin to assess how the resolution-keeping is faring.

Did you promise yourself that you'd get outside more? That you'd savor nature? That you'd take a few day trips, the kind that provide some scenery, some fresh air, and a chance to be away-away from your day-to-day?

Hem not, nor haw, over how firmly you're adhering to your 2019 promises, for there's a way to do all of the above, for just a couple of hours, on a Saturday morning.

Make that two ways, for the Big Bear Bald Eagle Celebration has a couple of dates flapping this way: Feb. 9 and March 9.

How it works? You get to the Big Bear Discovery Center in Fawnskin, for the 8 a.m. start time (yep, you can still show by 8:30, at the latest, but do try and show earlier).

The count is on from 9 to 10 a.m., and during that time you'll watch the skies, or more specifically the trees, for any signs of our majestic national bird.

You'll be assisting the U.S. Forest Service as they keep track of bald eagles as they spend these colder weeks around the San Bernardino National Forest.

Indeed, the apt word is "wintering," if you want to break that out. 

For while we humans have a way of wintering in place, bald eagles have a way of alighting in the wooded areas not so far from Los Angeles, at higher elevations, and keeping an eye on how many are seen helps naturalists to maintain records about the eagles' year-to-year numbers, and where they're showing up, too.

Nope, the beautifully beaked flyers don't phone ahead to let us know where they'll go, nor do they post it on the corkboard down at the local coffeehouse.

Rather, many dedicated volunteers head into our regional mountains, each winter, all to have a sighting or two.

Wings crossed, of course.

For more information? Wing your way over to the Big Bear Discovery Center site now.