The Austin Audubon Society is sponsoring the 2009 Oak Savanna Birding Festival Saturday and Sunday at the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center.

As part of the festival, a program on bald eagles will be presented at 1 p.m. Saturday. Scott Mehus, the education program director from the National Eagle Center at Wabasha, will present the program.

The center is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about eagles and the habitat the eagles use along the Mississippi River.

Mehus’ passion is actually golden eagles, and he has been watching them for more than 14 years in southeast Minnesota. For five years he has been organizing a winter Golden Eagle survey.

The bald eagle coming to Austin is named Angel, one of five Eagle Education Ambassadors from the National Eagle Center.

Angel came to the National Eagle Center in 2000 after she had been found as a nestling on the ground near her nest in north central Wisconsin with a broken wing.

The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota was unable to repair her injuries in order to release her back into the wild, so she found a new home at the National Eagle Center.

The eagle program is free and open to the public. People are asked to call the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center at 437-7519 to reserve a place.

For details on the rest of the festival, contact Terry Dorsey at 433-4483 or e-mail twdorsey@ charter.net, or contact Dick Smaby at 433-1925 or e-mail rns maby@charter.net.