Published: July 04, 2009 11:55 pm      

Eagles spotted in region

BY JOE GORDEN

jgorden@tribdem.com

During the first week of June, participants in the 10th annual Stony-Kiski-Conemaugh River Sojourn were treated to the sight of a pair of bald eagles soaring over the Conemaugh River near Bolivar.

It’s something that would not have been possible even 10 years ago, but it underscores the remarkable success enjoyed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s bald eagle restoration program.

“The story of the bald eagle’s recovery is living proof that responsible natural resource management and conservation make Pennsylvania a better place to live and ensure wildlife will be around for future generations to enjoy,” the agency’s executive director, Carl Roe, said last week in the Game Commission’s annual eagle status update.

“As our nation’s symbol, the bald eagle’s presence is essential in America’s outdoors,” Roe said. “They immediately add a touch of true wilderness to any area they inhabit, whether it’s on the shoreline of Philadelphia or a remote stretch of one of the commonwealth’s river systems.”

In 1983, there were only three known bald eagle nests in Pennsylvania when the Game Commission began its seven-year reintroduction program. Agency employees, including some from the Southwest Region, went to Saskatchewan to take young eaglets from nests and bring them back to be raised and released in eastern Pennsylvania. During the course of the program, 88 eagles were released.

Since then, nesting eagles in Pennsylvania have produced more than 1,200 young, and the population is growing by an estimated 15 percent each year.

The Game Commission says there are at least 170 nests in

49 counties today, including

36 new ones added in the past year. Last year, it estimated there were 140 nests in 47 counties, but later determined the actual number was 156 nests.

“We have realistic expectations of a similar pattern of increase in 2009,” Game Commission biologist Doug Gross said. “Some pairs that successfully nested in 2008 do not seem to be nesting this year because of storm damage to their nests.

“Most of these pairs remain in their territories and may rejoin the active nesting population next year,” he said.

Tom Fazi at the Game Commission’s Southwest Region office in Bolivar said young eagles have been produced this year in two Armstrong County nests and one each in Westmoreland and Fayette counties.

He also said the agency is aware of the eagles spotted during the sojourn.

“I’ve had reports of them being seen,” he said. “It’s possible they have a nest there and we haven’t found it, but as the eagle flies, that’s really not that far from the Westmoreland County nest.”

As the state’s eagle population grows, there have been some signs of overcrowding in established nesting territories.

“We are hearing of more eagle-to-eagle conflicts at or near nests with a ‘rogue eagle’ interfering with an established pair,” Gross said. “Some of these rogues are beaten back by the established nesting pairs, but others do interfere with nesting and cause some nest failures. This is typical of a population that is reaching saturation in parts of its range, such as the northwestern counties and in the Upper Delaware River watershed.”

But, Gross said, there is room in Pennsylvania for more eagles.

“There’s still plenty of new or sparsely-used territory for nesting pairs in the commonwealth,” he said. “Some of the best remaining eagle nesting habitat includes the Susquehanna’s north and west branches, the Monongahela River, the Youghiogheny River and the Lake Erie shoreline. There also are many large lakes and impoundments scattered across the state with more than adequate fisheries and no eagles.”

Fazi said there is still plenty of good eagle habitat to be had along rivers and on impoundments in the Southwest.

“They may be on the Conemaugh, the way that river is recovering in the past 15 years. It certainly has fish in it, and from Bolivar to Blairsville, that is wild country. I could easily see an eagle nesting in that stretch. It’s about as wild as you can get.”

There are no known nests in Cambria or Somerset counties, but Fazi said eagles can be seen nonetheless.

“I was camping in May at Laurel Hill State Park, and there was one at the lake,” he said. “I didn’t know of any nests close by, but I talked to (conservation officer) Brian Witherite, and he said they were probably the ones from the Yough.”

The only known nest on the Youghiogheny River is in Fayette County, not a difficult commute for a bald eagle.

Still, it offers the tantalizing prospect of an undiscovered nest in Somerset County, an idea Fazi did not dismiss.

The Game Commission still is looking for new eagle nests, and points out that it gets a lot of good information regarding potential sites from people just like those who saw the eagles during the sojourn.

“The increased use of rivers and lakes at this time of year by the boating public has yielded new nests to our inventory in recent years,” Gross said. “If you encounter a nest, give the birds some elbow room, take some notes on the location and the eagles’ behavior, and drop us an e-mail about the specifics. Remember, we cannot protect a nest unless we know about it.”

E-mails can be sent to

pgccomments@state.pa.us. Use the words “Eagle Nest Information” in the subject field.