Bald eagles slowly returning to the County
Administrator | Jan 01, 2013 | Comments 7
Three bald eagles at play in the Adophus Reach area photographed by Wayne Burtch. County naturalist Terry Sprague notes the two with the white heads are adult birds, and the other is an immature. “Bald eagles take about five years before they finally acquire the white head and tail. The immature in the photo appears to be a first year bird.” Sprague says there are quite a few bald eagles around the County this winter. “They always appear in the fall and seek out fish and/or carrion before heading north again to their breeding grounds in the spring. None has nested here along the Lake Ontario shoreline since the very early 1950s, although we hope one day they will return to this area as a nesting species. We have two huge nesting platforms erected in super dominant trees, both in the Black River area.” For more on County nature, visit Sprague’s website at www.naturestuff.net and his countylive.ca blog at http://www.countylive.ca/?cat=21
Filed Under: Featured Articles
eagles are returning everywhere–their numbers have been rising for some time now
An amazing photo! We have seen nesting pairs near the shore at the former Girl Guide Camp in Waupoos.
If it’s the nest platform at the dge of the Cressy Marsh, that would be an osprey platform. Bald eagle platforms are similar, but huge in comparison and are usually installed in super dominant trees, like a white pine. I was involved in the eagle platform on the former Tobin property and it took us the better part of an entire day. Although currently it is home to cobwebs, with each new year there is fresh hope.
Pretty sure I saw one on my walk yesterday on Prinyer’s Cove Crescent. Also, I noticed last summer someone installed a huge nesting platform atop a pole on CR 7 just west of Prinyer’s Cove. It did not get occupied but hoping for the best this summer!
Both north and south shorelines of the Long Point peninsula are heavily used by bald eagles for hunting during the fall and winter months. Of course, during migration the South Shore Important Bird Area is heavily used by both bald and lesser numbers of golden eagles as all birds of prey prefer to migrate over land along the shoreline where they can make use of the thermals.
One day this past fall I saw 7 Bald Eagles soaring over Prince Edward Point – That would be about 2 km (as the Eagle flies) from the Government approved wind turbine project at Ostrander Point – what a shame if we are attracting these iconic raptors to nest in the County and then they end up being “adversely effected” by huge wind turbines. We have to stop the Gilead project.
What a good news story!