A swooping bald eagle surprised two co-workers while they were conducting a routine river inspection Tuesday.

Janet Divens and Laura Yoder, who work for the Bureau of Water Quality at the Muncie Sanitary District, were looking for oil spills, abandoned furniture and other signs of illegal dumping when the bird flew near their van at Nebo and River roads.

"It was just thrilling," Divens said in an interview Friday. "It's neat to see stuff like that. I mean, we get excited when we see beavers."

The two women photographed the bald eagle after it landed on a nearby tree branch.

Since the sighting, the bald eagle images have spread via e-mail among local White River enthusiasts.

"Its something to get excited about," said Layne Cameron, a fisherman and kayaker who helped organize a White River cleanup in 2008.

This is the first time since 2003 that a bald eagle has made news in Delaware County.

At that time, a bald eagle had been caught along White River west of Yorktown in a coyote trap baited with a deer carcass, suffering a minor leg injury. The bird was treated by wildlife rehabilitator Diane Shaffer and released to the wild.

Bald eagles migrate through and spend the winter in Indiana, and some remain to nest and live in the state year-round, John Castrale, a non-game bird biologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, told The Star Press in 2003.

Most bald eagles seen in Indiana will leave in the spring for more northern breeding areas.

During January and February, Castrale estimated there are as many as 500 eagles in the state.

Those eagles that remain in Indiana to nest and breed are the product of an eagle reintroduction program started near Lake Monroe in the 1980s.

Eagle nesting and breeding was common in Indiana until the 1890s, when the loss of wetlands caused the bird to find nesting grounds elsewhere.

It is unclear whether the bald eagle that Divens and Yoder saw is nesting here or just passing through during the winter.

Shirley Townsend, who lives at Nebo and River roads, said she plans to research bald eagles online with her three kids after hearing that one had been spotted nearby.

She also hopes to get her own photograph.

"It will be kind of cool," she said.