The first bald eagle that I ever saw was at Walden State Recreation Area near Hay Springs when I was about 10-years old. I was hooked!

Shortly after that the bald eagle along with the whooping crane and gray whale were placed on the Endangered Species List.

After graduating from college, Cindy and I moved to Ewing, and we lived along the banks of the Elkhorn River where two bald eagles spent their winters.

Next it was down to Gothenburg and the Platte River where I saw the birds constantly.

It is who you know in this world, and I knew Leonard France. Leonard was the president of the School Board and an electrician at the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District. Central was opening their J-2 Power Plant south of Lexington to the public to watch bald eagles. I talked to Leonard about helping out at the Plant on weekends and he talked to Kevin Boyd.

That led me to 28 years of working for the District and working with bald eagles. The bald eagle was then taken off the Endangered Species List in 2007.

However, the District continues to open the J-2 Plant for the public on weekends, and now that I’m retired I went back to working at the Plant on weekends as a host for people coming to view the eagles.

The weekends I don’t work Dennis White is the host.

The Plant is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 1p.m. We have had up to 60 eagles feeding at a time, however, 5 – 10 is more common and Dennis had 24 last weekend. They tend to be more active early in the day, so we encourage people to come at 8:00 as opposed to noon.

Why bring this up? In 1926, Kentucky started a trend of naming a state bird when they chose the northern cardinal as their official state bird. Nebraska followed up on March 22, 1929, when the Legislature voted to make the Western Meadowlark our state bird. Not every state did so at the time. New York and South Dakota were latecomers to the “state bird” list.

Both states made the move in 1970, with New York choosing the eastern bluebird and South Dakota copying Nebraska with the western meadowlark. In 1972, Arizona became the last state to choose a state bird when they designated the cactus wren as their bird.

Again, why bring this up? Because, while all 50 states have a State Bird, the United States did not have a National Bird! In 1782 Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson came to an agreement that the bald eagle should be represented on the Great Seal of the Country, but is was not officially our National Bird.

Everyone knows that Franklin didn’t like the bald eagle. He referred to the bald eagle as 'a bird of bad moral character.' That was based upon the eagle’s habit of bullying other birds into dropping their catch so the eagle could eat it.

Preston Cook, an eagle lover in Minnesota, started a petition to make the bald eagle the official National Bird. On Dec. 16, 2024, Congress gave him his wish when they voted unanimously to make the bald eagle the official National Bird of the United States. President Biden signed it into law.

In this day and age of politics, it is almost impossible for Congress and the President to agree unanimously on anything, but my favorite bird, the bald eagle, brought them all together. What more could we expect from our National Bird.