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