Simon Thomsett

Category: Cataract Operation for Rosy, Crowned Eagles | Date: Sep 13 2008 | By: simonthomsett

Jim asked if I could explain why Rosy was given this name. Rosy is a male. He is about as male as you can get. I have grown so used to accepting Rosy as a male’s name that I cannot understand the muddle some people get into when they refer to Rosy as a “she”. Rosy was first called Rossy, after a lady with a similar shaped nose. The late Peter Davey found Rosy in the Aberdare National Park under his nest tree in 1977. Sam Weller, the manager of the Ark, and his friends that included Rossy (Spurway), went in the middle of the night in the pouring rain to pick him up.

No-one knew Rossy to be a male back then. He was kept in an aviary, about the size of an outhouse for nearly a year. When I saw him sitting in the back of the wire shed it was obvious he had one weak wing. The story of how I got there and ran away from school to do so is long and arduous. Suffice it to say I knew Rossy was male the moment I saw him, because females are so much bigger. I had a girlfriend with whom I had a hopeless crush back at school called Rosemary Swift. I called Rossy, Rosie. He responded to this name as he would to Rossy, and so it stuck. As I lost contact with Rosie and I then made the fine distinction of calling Rosie, Rosy, a popular brand of lavatory paper. When asked, I would say he was named after this brand, but the truth is out now.

It made no difference to me that Rosy was a female name. It was a tough world. Perhaps by giving so huge and formidable an eagle a sissy female name, he would end up mean and tough. Johnny Cash had a famous song: “A man named Sue”. It was a story of a father naming his son Sue, so that he would grow up a fighter.

Well Rosy grew up a fighter all right. He has put many into hospital, killed dogs, and frightened thousands with his fierce glare. Right now his attitude is still serving him well. I do not regret for a moment naming a huge male Crowned Eagle, Rosy.

Tags: Crowned Eagle, Name, Rosy