An American bald eagle has made its home within minutes from historic downtown McMinnville.“We thought it was a deer, at first,” said Ella Adams of the creature they spotted in a field by their house on Beersheba Highway. “Then we used binoculars to get a closer look at it. It was huge, but it wasn’t a deer.”Gregg Garrison, biology teacher at Motlow State Community College and avid bird watcher, says bald eagles are rare in Warren County, but not unheard of.“We had our bird count at the end of December and we did find one in northern Warren County just outside the city,” said Garrison.The Christmas Bird Count, a census of birds, is performed annually by volunteer birdwatchers and administered by the National Audubon Society.The bald eagle was chosen as a national emblem of the United States by the Continental Congress of 1782.