[Bristol-Birds] Bald Eagles at nest on SHL -- a timeline
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:48:36 -0500
Keeping vigilance from
about 400 yards away,
this Bald Eagle
carefully watched the
nest at South Holston
Lake Friday, 27 March.
Despite the light rain
and dark sky, observers
gathered nearly 3/4
miles away to watch the
drama continue to play
out center stage. This
is nice. It is historical:
South Holston and SW
Virginia's first eagle's nest.
Jack Millspaugh, a lake resident with a keen awareness
of the eagles who has great hopes for their success,
phoned me today at noon. The eagles were demanding
a standing ovation.
Shortly after 8:30 a.m., both adult eagles stood on the
nest. They bobbed their heads. Millspaugh has become
fairly accomplished at watching the pair. He has been
keeping tabs on this nest for six months. He believes
this immense nest, in a tall pine, was not present last
year. After all, it is so dominant and obvious he can
sit in a chair by his fireplace and see the nest with the
naked eye, even though it is just a little less than a mile
away. The nest is big, with a diameter of 5 to 6 feet.
According to Millspaugh, he
watched the nest being built last
September. Birds were seen
carrying sticks to the tree but no
nest was visible, he recalls.
In November, the nest was of
considerable size and most
evident. An observer, looking
for the nest, could probably
see the large black mass of
stick from nearly a mile away.
In late winter the eagles were present and sitting
on the nest. Someone else needed to know about this.
That was obvious to Millspaugh. He did not know how
important such a nest could be to the region's avifauna.
Virginia biologists and birders do not get so excited about
eagles nesting in the state these days. From a low of 33
nests in Virginia and approximately 80-90 pair in the entire
Chesapeake Bay region in 1970, the Commonwealth's eagle
population has recovered to nearly 650 nesting pair, says
Bob Duncan with the VDGIF Richmond headquarters.
A former district and region biologist
in the Marion office and very aware
of nongame concerns, Duncan knows
the importance of the nest to the region
and the thousands of dollars and diverse
support received for hacking 30 eaglets
at South Holston to help the USF&WS's
Kentucky/Tennessee Bald Eagle
Recovery Team get a population
established in the midsouth. Duncan
was a former biologist for the
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
in Northeast Tennessee and South
Holston was in his region. He is now
executive director of the Virginia
Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
(VDGIF). His wife has family in Wise County and at Kingsport, TN.
Millspaugh called the state and left a message with the Marion
office of the VDGIF. He left his phone number and cell phone number.
That message was sent in an email to Bill Bassinger, District Wildlife
Biologist, from one of the secretaries in his office on Feb 25.
Bassinger was out of the office on work assignments until Friday,
Feb 27. He called Millspaugh that morning and told him that he
would try to get down that afternoon and determine if the object
Millspaugh had been observing was, in fact, an eagles' nest.
In early afternoon, Bassinger was at Millspaugh's home and saw
the pair of eagles and the object that Millspaugh pointed out.
They watched as an eagle flew out of the nest, according to
Millspaugh.
Bassinger told Coffey that "I was confident that it was
indeed a nest. When I returned to the office, I prepared a map
of the location and sent it along with a brief report of my trip to
the lake to DGIF Wildlife Diversity Biologist Jeff Cooper and to
Regional Wildlife Manager Allen Boynton." He shared information
with others in their office and also informed Bob Riggs of VDGIF
about the nest. "I had hoped to get back down to the lake the
following Monday and try to do a closer inspection but had to
attend a meeting," he said.
While at the Millspaugh's house, Bassinger made a cell phone
call to one of the VDGIF's guys who was a "big bird watcher" and later
told Millspaugh there was a possibility that the person he called
would come down later to look at the nest. It seems that individual
must have been Boynton.
Riggs posted a message to the internet Sat, Feb 28, the day after
Bassinger saw the nest from Millspaugh's home.
Bassinger told me he had intended to go back down early the
following week. Millspaugh said no one else had been there from
VDGIF since that day. As a matter of fact, Carolyn and I were
the only other persons who have been there.
Millspaugh, and his wife Geneva Altizer
and her son, Mike Altizer (left) from
Richlands, VA, were the only ones to
pay much attention to the eagles
from their lake home.
This is partly due to the fact that Jack
and Geneva left for Florida, Mar 5, and did
not come back until this past Monday.
While there, Millspaugh purchased a
pair of astronomical type binoculars
distributed or made by Impro Optic
Instruments with a zoon 15-52 X 80
configuration with a field of 132 feet
at 1000 yards set at 18X. He then
returned with optics that would allow
him to study the nest more carefully
as the season advances.
When Millspaugh and his wife, Geneva, returned from Florida,
he got in touch with Bassinger to see what the status was of
developments about the eagles. The biologist told him I had
sent an email about the nest and then forwarded a copy to
Millspaugh. He then learned of my interest and telephoned.
Carolyn and I arrived at the lake front home Fri, Mar 27 (today)
at 1:44 p.m. Both eagles were present. One, which appeared to
be the largest (which would indicated a female), was standing on
the nest. It was active with its beak reaching down into the nest.
There was no indication that young were being fed. No food seen.
Incubating eagles stand up from the nest about every hour, if
weather permits, and attend to either turning the eggs over with
their beaks or fussing with sticks around the edge of the nest or
rearranging the material used in the nest lining. There was a
light rainfall at this time.
This bird then lowered itself to the nest and was in a flat position
but did hold its head up and look about. We were there about
90 minutes and the bird did not leave the nest. I am inclined to
believe the nest has eggs and the incubation period may be
approaching the 35 days eggs require to hatch.
Arrangements have been made with Jack and Geneva to keep
a calendar and notes on the progress of the nest and to inform
us of changes as they occur.
Geneva is a retired school teacher
and she loves wildlife and the
excitement about the eagle's nest.
Her father bought land where their
house is in 1957 and she built the
present home there about 1985.
She taught school for many years
in Buchanan County at Whitewood
Elm. and Jewell Ridge Elm. She
originally grew up in the Laurel
Creek area. But, she is especially
proud of having driven a school bus in the county for 30 years
and driving down what she called Brown Mountain.
Good folks keeping an eye on the good eagles of South Holston
Lake.
Let's go birding . . .
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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