After Transatlantic Solo, It’s ‘Coffee, Tea or Pigeon?’

--An American bald eagle that was found exhausted in Ireland after it flew the Atlantic Ocean flew back home--aboard a jet. The bird received an official send-off from Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey. “I wish Godspeed to our feathered friend. May he live long and happily in the wild, back in his natural habitat,” Haughey said at the airport in Shannon, Ireland. The bird, tethered on the arm of Irish wildlife ranger Pat O’Connell, was startled and tried to fly off as Haughey called for applause for the eagle. O’Connell had nursed the eagle back to health on a diet of venison and pigeons after he found it in Killarney National Park in western Ireland. The Irish state airline, Aer Lingus, donated first-class accommodations for the bird, named Iolar--Gaelic for eagle. Now that he’s back in the United States, Iolar, will spend 30 days in isolation and then be released into the wild. O’Connell believes the eagle’s parents chased it out of their territory, it got lost and then flew 3,000 miles with the help of strong westerly winds. The eagle, which at 6 months is too young to bear the distinctive white head feathers of adult bald eagles, was the first ever captured in Europe.