VFW breakfast

BISHOP – Bishop VFW Auxiliary Post 8988 is serving breakfast from 9–11 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 10, at 484 Short St. The menu will be pancakes with strawberries, large link sausage, eggs to order, coffee, tea, orange juice and hot chocolate, all for a donation of $12 for adults, children 12 years and younger eat for half price. This breakfast is open to the public. Free delivery is available. Call (760) 920-0106, or (760) 873-5770 for more information.

One sunny Friday morning last month Hal Batzloff and Larry Owens drove north on U.S. Highway 395 from Big Pine. From the front passenger car seat, Hal caught a sudden glance of a large bird on the highway shoulder. They slowed immediately, pulling over not far from the spot where the bird had crossed up and over a barbed wire fence stretching along the shoulder.

Hal and Larry, as members of the Owens Valley Raptor Monitoring Team, identified the large raptor as a Golden Eagle. Hal climbed over the wire and followed the eagle as it flapped erratically across the meadow. He hoped to rescue it.

He got hold of it once; the bird got away. With the second attempt, Hal’s arms firmly closed around the strong golden-brown feathered body. Hal headed back toward the car. Larry assisted

Hal over the fence, and into the front seat. The driver went northward slowly, heading a few miles to the western turnoff to Keough Hot Springs.

As volunteers for Bloom Research Inc., directed by Dr. Peter Bloom, Hal knew that Wildcare (as wildlife rehabilitators) was familiar with many species of raptors, including golden eagles. He directed Larry to a parking spot in front of the Wildcare Center. Carefully he got out of the vehicle, walked up steps and into the rehab