Watch Eagles Being Banded at Channel Islands National Park

If you can't travel to Channel Islands National Park on Thursday -- and really, how many of us can? -- but want to watch two bald eagles being banded, you can do that with a computer connection.

At 11 a.m. Pacific (noon Mountain, 1 p.m. Central, and 2 p.m. Eastern) biologists will be putting legs bands on two eaglets on Santa Cruz Island.

If all things go as expected, you can watch this live by surfing over to the park's live Bald Eagle Cam by clicking here. Along with attaching leg bands, the biologists plan to attached radio and satellite transmitters to the birds and give them quick checkups.

The eagles, which are close to fledging, will join a population of more than 30 bald eagles that now reside on the northern Channel Islands. They currently are residing in a bald eagle nest that is on The Nature Conservancy’s property on Santa Cruz Island, the largest in the chain of eight Channel Islands.

The bald eagle re-establishment project on Santa Cruz Island is part the Montrose Settlements Restoration Program (MSRP), a multi-agency program dedicated to restoring natural resources harmed by DDTs and PCBs released into the environment by Montrose Chemical Corporation and other industrial sources in Southern California in the mid- 20th century.

MSRP is overseen by the MSRP Trustee Council, which includes representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, California Department of Fish and Game, California State Lands Commission, and California Department of Parks and Recreation. For further information on the Montrose Settlements Restoration Program visit www.montroserestoration.gov