BIG BEAR BALD EAGLES have been in national news for some time so I've pretty much ceased writing about them here except, thought I'd briefly recap this year's bird events. The first 2 eggs were not hatched but a second batch of 2 eggs did. The emerging eaglets subsequently named Sandy and Luna fledged this past week. If you don't know the bird lingo, that means they flew into the vast blue sky above us all for the very first time. Previous years eagle posts here can be read in the archives.
Sandy was named after the recently deceased caring biologist who had been so supportive of bringing the endangered eagles to the world's attention. She had welcomed giving me permission to share their stories here long before they gained so much international fame.
Sandy Steers was the longtime Executive Director of the nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Bald Eagles. She made a significant impact "...in protecting the local habitat and spearheading the famous 24/7 solar-powered eagle nest cameras." the Los Angeles Times reported.
Eaglet Sandy was accidentally knocked out of the nest when her brother, Luna, flew. She fell through the tree but Sandy caught on to a branch. Eventually, she fledged from there, soaring through the sky.
You may read all the particulars at the Friends of Big Bear Eagles site, see videos of those exciting scary events, their parent eagles, Jackie and Shadow, their older siblings, and live views from 2 cameras, one at the nest and another on the surrounding environment. https://friendsofbigbearvalley.org/eagles/
Sibling sisters Sunny and Gizmo are the most recent previous eaglets from this pair sometimes seen flying in Big Bear skies above the lake. They may still be observing their parents and learning how to safely catch fish swimming in the lake water below.
HEAT WAVE IN AMERICA
"People often say that a country is going to hell. And the summer of 1936 was certainly infernal."-- Geoff Williams writes in National Geographic. https://apple.news/AFECSug0uS3ayFAlnQtuA3A
This article may answer why my Mother never wanted me to wear shorts and seemed opposed to them. I guess she was trying to protect me from any possible negative attitudes I might encounter from society's less than favorable attitude prevailing then toward a single divorced mother -- with children, too. This point of view coupled with other adults attitudes conveyed to their children to avoid playing with those youth living in such a household. Perhaps she thought it best to not risk subjecting me to any additional discrimination or worse by allowing me to wear shorts. Besides, she had deliberately had my smallpox vaccination's skin-beauty-marring scar placed out of view on my leg rather than my arm where it would more likely be exposed. All her planning possibly to no avail.
I was quite young then but I don't recall ever knowing about our culture's shorts attitude. "...discussions were happening all over the country, in backyards, parks, the workplace and even in church, where a young woman on LongIsland made headlines for being ejected by a priest for not being appropriately covered up. In Covington, Kentucky, police officers were told to cite any teenage girls or women dressed in shorts or halter tops for indecent exposure. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, when a business owner allowed his male employees to wear shorts in the store, he confided to the Detroit Press that he was worried abut the public reaction and was relieved that nobody seemed to object." -- Williams writes.
Given the times in which we live now, along with with the excessive heat being experienced in Europe, our own country and around the world, that quote from the National Geographic article caught my attention.
Perhaps the article and book, The Summer of Death, all by Geoff Williams, will be of interest to you, too.
