July 8, 2009 Virginia

Fans of our national bird for the first time can now go online and pinpoint locations of bald eagle nests in Virginia, thanks to the efforts of the Center for Conservation Biology.

A Google Maps application will allow users to locate known eagle nests and view their locations on a county-by-county basis. The VAEagles website marks the first time in the 54-year history of the center’s annual survey of nesting eagles that nest locations are made available to the public. The site shows the location of all known nests from the 2009 census survey.
The 2009 Virginia bald eagle survey shows the number of known breeding pairs has increased nearly 5 percent—

 Read the rest of the story here

http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2009/VAeagles-007.php

ROCKINGHAM — State biologists are watching three bald eagle nests in southeastern Vermont, hoping the birds will successfully raise young this summer.

Last year was the first time in decades that a bald eagle was known to have hatched and survived in Vermont. Now, the biologists want to make sure the birds are here to stay.

Biologists from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife are watching nests along the Connecticut River where adult eagles are acting as though they are caring for young.

It will probably be another month before the young eagles are visible.

Biologist Forrest Hammond tells the Brattleboro Reformer the recent cold and wet weather is not good for the birds’ chances of survival.

rest of story

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20090612/THISJUSTIN/906129989

Bald Eagle Nest: Probably pushing 100 years old -- PLUS!

Between 1963 and 1967 a bald eagle nest in my Barkley Sound Vancouver Island study area was annually used and produced 1 or 2 young each year. This leaning cedar tree was probably in excess of 300 years of age. The nest was very old and worn from many years of constant use. I had climbed to the nest in the 1960's and my notes state it was a very old nest, “well weathered and lived in”, size, 6 feet 2 inches across and about 2.5 feet deep. The nest had probably been occupied the previous 30 - 50 years.

This nest was one of 136 occupied territories in that part of Barkley Sound that I studied.


Another Visit to Same Nest  in 2003

In July of 2003 my wife, daughter and I were kayaking in Barkley Sound and, as we rounded the southern end of this same Island, I stated how in the early days my favorite nest was suspended over the water in a leaning cedar tree. We rounded the bend and there was the same leaning cedar – with two large full grown young standing in the nest.

As an update to the above, Barkley Sound was largely logged just prior to the 1950's and by the 1970's was designated part of the West Coast Regional National Park. During my study period in the mid 1960's we never saw more than 1 kayak or canoe party per summer and perhaps 3 to 5 pleasure boats. Commercial salmon trollers and shrimp trawlers were constantly working the Imperial Eagle Channel. Today the adjacent area houses numerous trailer parks and campsites, boat launch ramps and an incredible armada of kayaks, canoes and pleasure boats. And the area seemed to have as many bald eagles as it did 40 years ago. Not all is lost.

A question comes to mind: Will a tree sustain an eagle's nest for two or three hundred years? Certainly the trees can live twice that long. And how many different adult eagles nested in this single location? 


David Hancock

Bald Eagle Nesting Season Underway – We Need Eagle Nest Watchers.

National Request: While I started out my studies in the Northwest several decades ago and really started to get “Eagle Watchers” – people keeping a watch on the local Vancouver area eagle nests – I now am expanding this “Eagle Watch” program nationwide. Our Live CAMS on bald eagle nests have shown the international nature of eagle enthusiasts to want to contribute to the betterment of eagles.  This is a program of volunteers to help that cause.

The program is simple. We get people who are concerned about bald eagles to keep track of eagle nests in their area. I realize there are already hundreds of you out there. In my area these devote “Eagle Watchers” have been my best suppliers of information about disturbances around the eagle nests. If one of them saw any threat to "their" nest they called me or local authorities IMMEDIATELY! . Many of these same observers are also my best source of data on number of chicks fledged etc.

Now I want to expand this study in several ways.

1) Get a bevy of Eagle Watchers around the country – in every State & Province. Each to be watching one or more nests and reporting on it.

...cont ..