Eagle banding part of research project

Spring is in the air, the golden eagles have hatched their young and now is the time for biologists and their volunteers to mount the annual expeditions up local mountains to venture into eagle nests and band the baby eagles.

Several pairs of golden eagles are known to nest in San Diego and southwest Riverside counties and are tracked each year by Dave Bittner, executive director of the Ramona-based Wildlife Research Institute (WRI), and his team of biologists and volunteers.

“Golden eagles represent pristine habitat,” Bittner said. “If you don’t have really good habitat, you lose the eagles;...