[va-richmond-general] another nice birding article from NY Times - go to link for photos

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/nyregion/westchester/15eagleswe.html 

 

Kathy Kreutzer, Chesterfield

 

 

February 15, 2009

Bald Eagles Turn Heads at a Gathering of Fans 

By KATE STONE LOMBARDI

CROTON-ON-HUDSON

IT looked as if paparazzi had descended on the Croton Dam Bridge. Clusters
of photographers with tripods and telephoto lenses conferred excitedly when
they got the subject in their sights. Dozens of others had binoculars and
telescopes trained on their elusive prey.

The celebrities they were pursuing? Bald eagles, which were spotted on the
ice of the partly frozen Hudson River and nestling in trees on the
shoreline. It was all part of Eagle Fest, an event that has been held
annually for the last five years to celebrate the return of the bald eagle
to the lower Hudson Valley. 

?It?s such a success story, we wanted to share it with the public,? said
Fred W. Koontz, the executive director of Teatown Lake Reservation, an
Ossining-based nonprofit environmental organization ? with an 834-acre
nature preserve ? and a co-sponsor of the event. ?The bald eagles in the
area are recovering, and they have been coming back.?

Bald eagles, among the largest birds of prey in North America, were once
plentiful in New York. Before the 1900s, they used as many as 80 nesting
sites, primarily in northern and western New York, according to the State
Department of Environmental Conservation. But by 1976, only one pair of
eaglets remained. Environmentalists blamed pesticides, particularly DDT
(which was banned in 1972), for interfering with the raptors? ability to
reproduce. 

In 1976, the state began its Bald Eagle Restoration Project in an attempt to
re-establish a breeding population. Over 13 years, 198 nesting bald eagles
were collected, mostly from Alaska, and taken to New York. They were reared
in cages in towers in the mid-Hudson region and released. 

Today, roughly 500 bald eagles winter in New York (they migrate here when
the waters begin to freeze in Canada and Nova Scotia), and 143 pairs remain
in the state during the summer. Dr. Koontz said that eight pairs had stayed
year-round in the lower Hudson Valley. 

The Eagle Fest, which was held on Feb. 9 and based at Croton Point Park,
included heated tents with educational displays and talks by
conservationists. But the wild eagles were the main event, and a white board
kept visitors up to date on the latest sightings. 

At 9 a.m., 6 bald eagles had been spotted from the boat ramp at the
Croton-Harmon train station, 21 had been seen at George?s Island Park in
Montrose, 9 had been spotted at the Croton Dam and 3 had been seen at
Annsville Creek Paddlesport Center in Peekskill. 

By 11 a.m., 25 eagles had been spotted at the dam, some of them feeding on a
deer carcass on the partly frozen Hudson. Meanwhile, a peregrine falcon was
perched on a street lamp at the train station. 

Still more eagles could be seen from the shoreline of Croton Point Park.
Frank and Patty Clark of Tarrytown saw two bald eagles flying about two
miles out, over the Hudson. The Clarks were at the festival with their
3-year-old son, Frankie. All three had binoculars around their necks.

?I?ve never seen an eagle in the wild before,? Mr. Clark said. ?It was
exciting. They were both bald eagles. One was mature and one was immature.? 

Mature bald eagles have the distinctive white heads and tails; the word
?bald? in the eagle?s name comes from an Old English word that means
white-headed. Younger bald eagles have brown heads.

Among the presentations at the festival was ?Close Encounters With Birds of
Prey,? a kind of Raptors 101 given by Bill Streeter of the Delaware Valley
Raptor Center. 

Mr. Streeter explained that the term raptor refers to any birds of prey ?
including hawks, vultures, falcons, owls and eagles. Raptors have hooked
beaks, strong talons and feet that are disproportionately large for their
bodies. The center where Mr. Streeter works treats sick and injured raptors.
Most are set free when they have recovered, but some could not survive if
released into the wild. 

It was some of these birds that Mr. Streeter introduced as they perched on
his falconer?s glove, including Ace, a peregrine falcon that had been hit by
a car. Falcons, when healthy, can fly at 200 miles per hour and can kill
birds four times their size, Mr. Streeter told his audience. Peregrine
falcons are now nesting on Hudson River bridges from Manhattan to Albany. 

Mr. Streeter also displayed a red-tailed hawk, a great horned owl and a
saw-whet owl, but it was when he lifted Benson, a bald eagle, from his cage,
that the audience let out a gasp of admiration.

Benson, though unable to fly because he had once been shot in the chest,
still looked majestic. He was restless, and Mr. Streeter struggled to keep
him perched on the glove. 

He also displayed Julia, a 14-pound golden eagle, with 3 ½-inch talons and a
7-foot wingspan, ?one of the most powerful birds in the United States.? 

Festival visitors ? some 4,000 by the end of the day ? made their way from
the heated tents to the various viewing sights. Dan and Carol Carhart of
Denville, N.J., came to the festival on a bus tour. Self-proclaimed bird
lovers, they have seen eagles all over the country. 

Steve Brown of Manhattan came because his son Matthew, 7, had been studying
birds in the first grade. 

?We?ve taken up birding this year,? Mr. Brown said. ?I knew eagles were on
the Hudson, but I didn?t know they were this far south. We?re trying to get
out and learn as much as we can.? 

Hector DeLeon of Cortlandt Manor attended the raptor show and then made his
way up to the Croton Dam. He was sporting a baseball cap with an eagle
insignia and a sweatshirt with an image of a large bald eagle. 

?I just really do like eagles,? he said. ?They?re our national bird. They
fly into a storm. They represent something.?

 

 

Bald Eagles Turn Heads at a Gathering of Fans 

By KATE STONE LOMBARDI

CROTON-ON-HUDSON

IT looked as if paparazzi had descended on the Croton Dam Bridge. Clusters
of photographers with tripods and telephoto lenses conferred excitedly when
they got the subject in their sights. Dozens of others had binoculars and
telescopes trained on their elusive prey.

The celebrities they were pursuing? Bald eagles, which were spotted on the
ice of the partly frozen Hudson River and nestling in trees on the
shoreline. It was all part of Eagle Fest, an event that has been held
annually for the last five years to celebrate the return of the bald eagle
to the lower Hudson Valley. 

?It?s such a success story, we wanted to share it with the public,? said
Fred W. Koontz, the executive director of Teatown Lake Reservation, an
Ossining-based nonprofit environmental organization ? with an 834-acre
nature preserve ? and a co-sponsor of the event. ?The bald eagles in the
area are recovering, and they have been coming back.?

Bald eagles, among the largest birds of prey in North America, were once
plentiful in New York. Before the 1900s, they used as many as 80 nesting
sites, primarily in northern and western New York, according to the State
Department of Environmental Conservation. But by 1976, only one pair of
eaglets remained. Environmentalists blamed pesticides, particularly DDT
(which was banned in 1972), for interfering with the raptors? ability to
reproduce. 

In 1976, the state began its Bald Eagle Restoration Project in an attempt to
re-establish a breeding population. Over 13 years, 198 nesting bald eagles
were collected, mostly from Alaska, and taken to New York. They were reared
in cages in towers in the mid-Hudson region and released. 

Today, roughly 500 bald eagles winter in New York (they migrate here when
the waters begin to freeze in Canada and Nova Scotia), and 143 pairs remain
in the state during the summer. Dr. Koontz said that eight pairs had stayed
year-round in the lower Hudson Valley. 

The Eagle Fest, which was held on Feb. 9 and based at Croton Point Park,
included heated tents with educational displays and talks by
conservationists. But the wild eagles were the main event, and a white board
kept visitors up to date on the latest sightings. 

At 9 a.m., 6 bald eagles had been spotted from the boat ramp at the
Croton-Harmon train station, 21 had been seen at George?s Island Park in
Montrose, 9 had been spotted at the Croton Dam and 3 had been seen at
Annsville Creek Paddlesport Center in Peekskill. 

By 11 a.m., 25 eagles had been spotted at the dam, some of them feeding on a
deer carcass on the partly frozen Hudson. Meanwhile, a peregrine falcon was
perched on a street lamp at the train station. 

Still more eagles could be seen from the shoreline of Croton Point Park.
Frank and Patty Clark of Tarrytown saw two bald eagles flying about two
miles out, over the Hudson. The Clarks were at the festival with their
3-year-old son, Frankie. All three had binoculars around their necks.

?I?ve never seen an eagle in the wild before,? Mr. Clark said. ?It was
exciting. They were both bald eagles. One was mature and one was immature.? 

Mature bald eagles have the distinctive white heads and tails; the word
?bald? in the eagle?s name comes from an Old English word that means
white-headed. Younger bald eagles have brown heads.

Among the presentations at the festival was ?Close Encounters With Birds of
Prey,? a kind of Raptors 101 given by Bill Streeter of the Delaware Valley
Raptor Center. 

Mr. Streeter explained that the term raptor refers to any birds of prey ?
including hawks, vultures, falcons, owls and eagles. Raptors have hooked
beaks, strong talons and feet that are disproportionately large for their
bodies. The center where Mr. Streeter works treats sick and injured raptors.
Most are set free when they have recovered, but some could not survive if
released into the wild. 

It was some of these birds that Mr. Streeter introduced as they perched on
his falconer?s glove, including Ace, a peregrine falcon that had been hit by
a car. Falcons, when healthy, can fly at 200 miles per hour and can kill
birds four times their size, Mr. Streeter told his audience. Peregrine
falcons are now nesting on Hudson River bridges from Manhattan to Albany. 

Mr. Streeter also displayed a red-tailed hawk, a great horned owl and a
saw-whet owl, but it was when he lifted Benson, a bald eagle, from his cage,
that the audience let out a gasp of admiration.

Benson, though unable to fly because he had once been shot in the chest,
still looked majestic. He was restless, and Mr. Streeter struggled to keep
him perched on the glove. 

He also displayed Julia, a 14-pound golden eagle, with 3 ½-inch talons and a
7-foot wingspan, ?one of the most powerful birds in the United States.? 

Festival visitors ? some 4,000 by the end of the day ? made their way from
the heated tents to the various viewing sights. Dan and Carol Carhart of
Denville, N.J., came to the festival on a bus tour. Self-proclaimed bird
lovers, they have seen eagles all over the country. 

Steve Brown of Manhattan came because his son Matthew, 7, had been studying
birds in the first grade. 

?We?ve taken up birding this year,? Mr. Brown said. ?I knew eagles were on
the Hudson, but I didn?t know they were this far south. We?re trying to get
out and learn as much as we can.? 

Hector DeLeon of Cortlandt Manor attended the raptor show and then made his
way up to the Croton Dam. He was sporting a baseball cap with an eagle
insignia and a sweatshirt with an image of a large bald eagle. 

?I just really do like eagles,? he said. ?They?re our national bird. They
fly into a storm. They represent something.?

 

 

Kathy O'Kane Kreutzer, M.Ed.

Curriculum Office, School of Medicine

Virginia Commonwealth University

804-828-9789

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