The Steller's Sea Eagle, A Maine Favorite, Has Returned to Roost

Maine seems to be a pretty bird friendly state.

Maine seems to just adore birds. And I don't just mean the folks who enjoy going out to hunt them. If you follow the Maine Wildlife page on Facebook, you'll see people constantly posting cool photos of turkeys, or partridge, or even just pigeons doing weird things. But about a year ago, people were losing their minds over the Steller's Sea Eagle.

It's gotta be weird, even for an eagle, to be so far from home and not see any of your own kind.

It's this weird looking eagle, at least by our standards, with this giant beak, and huge wing span. It comes from the area of the world where parts of Asia and Russia overlap, so the thing became a source of fascination due to it's distance from home. On the other hand, it seems to all but flourish in our climate, so no one worried about it too hard... As opposed to that Great Black Hawk that all but froze to death the year before in Southern Maine, and was ultimately euthanized.

Well, everyone's favorite out-of-towner has returned to Maine.

According to a post from the Maine Audubon Society, the Steller's Sea eagle has made it's triumphant return to Maine. Right now, it seems to be centering its territory in the area between Arrowsic and Georgetown. It would seem the eagle is settling down for a bit in that spot.

Here's a cool video with a ton of info about the Steller's Sea Eagle...

The Steller's Sea Eagle left Maine last spring and was then spotted up in Newfoundland. After summering in the area, the eagle moved down into the New Brunswick region, and has now settled back here in Maine. It's gotta be weird, even for an eagle, to be so far from home and not see any of your own kind.

It would be interesting to see if it mates with a domestic eagle and started a new whole new breed. But I don't really know how picky eagles are about who they do their business with. Only time will tell...