Flying High

The American Eagle Foundation in Kodak is the largest agency in the U.S. devoted to our national symbol.

Credit: American Eagle Foundation

Eagle-eyed fans may have recognized a Tennessee celebrity during this past year’s NFL season.

To clarify, Lincoln, an American bald eagle from Tennessee, is a celebrity in Philadelphia. That’s because he flew around Lincoln Financial Field before Eagles’ home games to fans yelling their nickname for him: “Linc.”

The eagle was hatched in 1998 at the American Eagle Foundation’s Eagle Mountain Sanctuary at Dollywood. There, he was raised by two non-releasable eagles, Liberty and Justice, until he was eight weeks old. When he was released into the wild, Lincoln immediately took off to Indiana and Michigan — flying 550 miles in his first two weeks. But he had trouble hunting on his own and struggled to survive.

Later that year, Lincoln was found, hungry and weak. Returned to the American Eagle Foundation, experts found he was unable hunt successfully. U.S. Fish and Wildlife deemed him non-releasable and he made Tennessee his permanent home.

Another eagle, Challenger, was the first eagle to ever free fly over sporting events, national ceremonies, and more. (Yes, even before Auburn’s War Eagle.) He flew over the inaugurations of Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

Lincoln took Challenger’s place when he retired due to cataracts. But Challenger still flies (after University of Tennessee pros fixed his eyes) at the foundation’s new, 48-acres headquarters in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Jessica Hall is the foundation’s executive director. She joined me on the State & Beale podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about Lincoln, Challenger, the foundation’s headquarters and one-of-a-kind aviary in Kodak, and he group’s mission to protect American bald eagles. Here’s a bit of the conversation but catch the podcast for whole thing.

 State & Beale: I saw Lincoln on Instagram and thought, “what a cool Tennessee story.”

Jessica Hall: He is a Tennessee bird for sure. In fact, he practiced at (the University of Tennessee’s) Neyland Stadium for his flights at Lincoln Financial Field.

S&B: I know you said your blood runs orange…

JH: It was pretty awesome for me, just because personally, my father's ashes are scattered on the south end zone of Neyland Stadium. To go there professionally and practice one of our bald eagles and do what we do for education there. That was pretty amazing.

S&B: This is a true Tennessee story, too. Y’all are located in East Tennessee. Dollywood is involved. Folks from Mt. Juliet are involved and so is a falconer from the Memphis Zoo.

JH: It all started with a gentleman named Bob Hatcher, who was an agent with Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA). He was very passionate about bald eagles, passionate about protecting them and getting them flying free back into the skies. He hosted seminars in Nashville and met folks from Cumberland Wildlife Refuge. There was another gentleman, too, who saw a newspaper article about bald eagles had been shot.

They all wanted to learn more about what TWRA wanted to do in terms of protecting bald eagles in the state of Tennessee. Out of that, an organization called Save The Eagle was born. That became the American Eagle Foundation.

S&B: Have you always been based in Kodak?

JH: Originally, it was based in Nashville and then relocated to East Tennessee to Dollywood theme park, who is one of our early and most prolific sponsors. They provided an area for us inside their theme park to have a sanctuary with all the eagles that are injured and deemed not releasable by U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

S&B: Is there anything Dolly can't do?

JH: Without Dollywood and without Dolly Parton, we certainly would not be where we are at today.

S&B: Are y'all the biggest group in the country helping bald eagles?

JH: We are. We operate the nation's largest bald eagle sanctuary. We have almost 50 bald eagles. The facility closest to us, maybe, has six.

Our job is to educate around the bald eagle. We believe that conservation and protection are byproducts of great education and providing opportunities for people to come up close and interact with the bald eagle.

S&B: Where do these birds come from? How do y'all get them?

JH: All over the United States. We have birds from Alaska. We have birds from Florida. We have birds from New York.  We have Challenger, the eagle. He's from Louisiana. So, we joke that when he squawks, he's got a little Creole in him.

Whenever a bald eagle is injured and deemed non releasable by U. S. Fish and Wildlife, they then reach out to organizations to place those eagles in the care of sanctuaries. We’re one of those sanctuaries. We try never to turn down a bald eagle simply because — just like we would take care of our nation's injured veterans and injured soldiers — we feel like it's important to take care of our nation's injured symbols.

S&B: How do y’all train birds to fly over stadiums and events?

JH: We use a combination of modern training techniques, such as a bird-first philosophy, meaning that we take all of our indicators from the bird. If the eagle doesn't want to fly, we don't force that fly out of that eagle. If the eagle doesn't want to step up onto our glove or go into onto the kennel, we don't force that behavior. We let the eagle decide.

[For football games], we take Lincoln up onto the second deck — and eagles can see over a mile away — so he sights that yellow platform [on the field]. Then,  it's his choice to soar. A lot of time, he'll catch a nice wind thermal in the stadium, and he'll do a couple of loops, which just the fans absolutely love. Then, he'll come down to that platform when he's ready.

We always have a treat waiting on him, just like you would for a dog or cat. He loves rats.