Partially DR --- Bald Eagles have recovered

D

David Allen

Active member
With the elimination of toxic chemicals and with the switch to non-toxic shot by us duck hunters eagles in this are have certainly recovered. My son and I just counted 24 eagles driving down two miles of road near a stream. I am guessing that there are probably double that number as large portions of the stream are not visible from the road. Likely 3 or 4 times that amount along the entire length of the stream and the river near the mouth of the stream.
The eagles are concentrated near the stream to feed on an abundant run of alewives. This alewife run has been allowed by the efforts of another group of sportsman. Specifically, Trout Unlimited fought to remove the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River, its removal allowed the alewives to reach the stream near my house. I small fish ladder was added to allow the fish to get around a small dam and now we have an abundant runs of alewives, a significant concentration of eagles to feed on the run, a cleaner pond and a significant income to the town for rights to harvest a portion of the run for lobsta bait.
The lobsta men are allowed to harvest 4 days a week. The harvest is lierally tons a day. The other three days DMR allows enough alewives into and out of the pond to produce the next generation.
I think it is cool to see the water boils with fish. I also enjoy watching the bass have a feeding frenzy like what you might see with blue fish on the ocean.
 
Same down here. It used to be if you saw an eagle, you spread the word & bragged about it for weeks.

Now its like "look, another eagle went by the office window" and nobody even looks up.

It is fun to watch them giving the coots hell in the winter!
 
Amazing the difference im populations since i saw my first around 1996. They are becoming a nuisance in our area... can completely ruin a turkey or duck hunt
 
We have them where I live now and where I grew up at but back then the numbers weren't that great now days the numbers are growing but I still don't get tired of seeing them are listening to them in the morning when I'm sitting on my porch drinking my coffee.
 
Never had them in the last two lifetimes, at least.

But we got em now, at least 3 nesting pairs that I know of, and a flyby now and then.

Darn things are eating the Osprey chicks, adding insult to injury as they steal the fish from them too. Guess Benjamin Franklin was right, nothing but freeloading seagulls. LOL
 
I've seen Osprey chicks push one another out of the nest on more than one occasion in NW PA.

Bald Eagles and Osprey were very rare, now they are everywhere in PA. Saw a Great Blue Heron take a fish off of a Osprey on the Shenango River.

Osprey will catch a fish, a Bald Eagle will follow. The Osprey soars as high as it can, then drop the fish and the Eagle goes into a stoop to catch the fish.

Now that IS a sight!

Talk about messing with each other...
 
Good morning, David~

Thanks for posting your great story. The tie-in with your Alewives is fabulous.

We, too, are enjoying the resurgence of Bald Eagles here in eastern New York. We see them on most every river duck hunt - and they breed here, too. I have been surprised how often we see them feeding on carrion - especially road-killed deer - in farm fields. Last week, a full adult got up off the roadside right in front of my car. It had been feeding on the shoulder, right next to a patch of woods - not the wide open areas I had long associated with this big bird.

All the best,

SJS
 
Here in Maine we have an issue with them feeding on road kill. I am not sure way but eagles get hit by vehicles while feeding on road kill. They just do not fly off to avoid getting hit. The Department of Transportation has to be very diligent about moving road kill to the ditch.
 
The first adult Bald Eagle I saw up close was in upper Michigan many years ago. It was eating a "Dead Skunk In The Middle Of The Road", for real. We had to stop the vehicle before it flew a short distance.


When I lived in western PA a friend called on his cell phone. He was eating lunch at his cousin's bar that had very good chicken wings and did a booming business. Two huge dumpsters were behind the bar near the river.

"Your not gonna believe this. There are FIVE Bald Eagles sittin' on the dumpsters eating chicken wing bones!"

Ben Franklin was correct...

The Golden Eagle, now that is a fierce raptor.
 
One of Maine's bird biologists, Charlie Todd, has been studying the Sebasticook River herring run and its use by eagles. There is a nice report here: http://www.maine.gov/ifw/wildlife/species/pdfs/Sebasticook Eagle Flyer 92115.pdf

If you ever come to Maine between mid May and mid June--and you should, as it's the nicest time of year and summer crowds are not here yet--you should put the Sebasticook and its alewife and eagles on you to-do list. I'm a fish guy and may be biased, but I think a big herring run is every bit the biological spectacle of world class waterfowl or mammal migrations.
truc
There are historic accounts of black bears coming to small streams with herring runs to feed on the alewife run in Maine--and of colonists bringing their pigs to fill up in spring.

In other news, the shad have arrived on the Kennebec. I had to run an errand at lunch today that brought me to a tributary that always hosts shad in mid-May. In ten minutes, I watched three anglers land 7 shad between them. The heaviest rod in my truck was a 4-weight I use for little brook trout on small streams, so I couldn't join them, but it was quite a sight.
 
It is almost shocking how common Bald Eagles have become around here. I enjoy seeing them but have to admit it is becoming a less noteworthy event...in a way I think that's a good thing. There are times in the late fall and spring when it isn't unusual to see 20 or more in a day. I doubt that I saw many more then 20 here locally before I was 25. Since the mid 90s the population has boomed.

Last week while out fishing I had a pretty cool encounter. I heard a massive ripping of the air coming in from behind me, that roar of a two dozen bluebills banking hard and losing altitude. I quickly looked up to see a Bald Eagle, maybe 30 yards above me, dropping like a rock towards the water. Just as it got to the water the fish it saw on the surface must have went under because it pulled up before talons got wet. It would have been awesome to see it pick off a fish but just hearing that sound was worth it.

While Ospreys have not become nearly as common here I have noticed that they are not nearly as uncommon as they once were. What use to be a once a year encounter here locally has become several different birds a year. And I spend a lot less time on the lakes now then I use to. I saw one hunting a small lake earlier this spring. It dove in several times with no success and then later flew right over with a perch that we had unfortunately not seen it catch. Very cool birds.

Tim
 
All my years living in PA within 40 miles of the Delaware River, we never went shad fishing. Gotta add it to my bucket list....

You shoulda just broke out the 4wt and gave it a shot, what a battle that would have been!
 
I live in a suburban neighborhood adjacent to the Yellowstone River in Billings and it is not unusual these days to see bald eagles and ospreys cruising over a landscape of mowed lawns and SUVs.
 
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