[Bristol-Birds] Nesting eagles at Wilbur Lake -- historic first for Carter Co.
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:32:55 -0400
The following is a good article Bryan Stevens wrote for the Elizabethton Star
newspaper.
History on the wing
Nesting eagles at Wilbur Lake
represent historic first for county
When Stanley and Carolyn Honeycutt began paying closer attention to two bald
eagles at Wilbur Lake a few weeks ago, the couple had no idea they were seeing
history in the making.
The couple first noticed the eagles months ago. During trips to the small TVA
reservoir, the couple continued to observe the eagles.
"At some point, we realized we always saw them at the same tree," Carolyn
Honeycutt said.
About four weeks ago, the couple began to notice that the eagles were carrying
large branches to the dead tree atop a cliff overlooking the lake.
"We sat there on a recent Saturday morning for three hours, watching them
carrying sticks to the tree where they are nesting," she said.
The eagles were nesting.
Stanley Honeycutt contacted Brookie Potter, a local birder who lives within
walking distance of Wilbur Lake.
Potter and his wife, Jean, are well known in area birding circles. Stanley and
Brookie knew each other from when they worked together at Snap-On Tools in
Elizabethton.
The Potters confirmed what the Honeycutts already suspected, and they contacted
other local birding experts to report the nesting activity. According to Rick
Knight, one of the birders they contacted and a member of the Lee and Lois
Herndon Chapter of Tennessee Ornithological Society, the nesting is a historic
first for Carter County.
It's not the only one. A pair of bald eagles in Unicoi County are also at work
at the first recorded nesting by eagles in this neighboring county.
These nestings don't come as a complete surprise.
"These local nests were not a surprise, given the increasing numbers and
expanding distribution of the Tennessee population of bald eagles," Knight
said. "It was pretty much a matter of time."
Knight said there's a strong possibility that the eagles in Carter and Unicoi
counties are descendants of 29 eaglets hacked over a three-year period from
large hacking towers near South Holston Dam and Little Oak Campground in the
Cherokee National Forest.
Hacking involves placing 8-week-old eaglets in artificial nests. They are
released when they are about 12 to 13 weeks old, which is about the time they
become capable of flight. Eagles show a strong tendency to return to nest
within about 75 miles of the location of their first flight. Eagles do not nest
until about 5 years old.
No adult eagles were released during the hacking program near South Holston
Dam. The eaglets involved were brought from Alaska and Wisconsin between 1991
and 1994.
Bristol birder Wallace Coffey helped get the hacking project off the ground
that is paying dividends 20 years later.
Coffey said the Bristol Bird Club and its members helped raise thousands of
dollars to fund the project, which was conducted by the Cherokee National
Forest, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Tennessee Tech University.
"I believe that project and others, over a wider area of neighboring states,
have been responsible for the establishment of the bald eagle nesting explosion
we have found in this area," Coffey said.
In recent years, bald eagles have become increasingly common in the region.
Knight noted that bald eagles were recorded nearly annually on the Elizabethton
Christmas Bird Count, which covers Watauga Lake, since the mid 1990s.
Previously, there had been only a single record in 1988 on the Elizabethton
CBC.
On the Bristol CBC, which includes South Holston Lake, there were six eagle
records from 1956 to 1978. However, eagles have been recorded almost every year
since 1990.
Coffey agreed that bald eagles are definitely increasing their numbers in the
region.
"Eagles were rare in winter when I first started birding at South Holston Lake
in March 1961," he said. "They have only begun to be much more common in the
last two or three years, as far as I can tell from records and Christmas Bird
Count data. But records have been turning up at an increasing rate for about
five years or so."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially listed the bald eagle as a
national endangered species July 4, 1976. A dedicated effort to protect the
nation's official symbol proved successful.
Outside of Alaska, the population of bald eagles had declined significantly
between 1930 and the early 1970s. The pesticide DDT affected the eagles by
hampering their ability to reproduce.
The website, Tennessee Watchable Wildlife, places most of the blame for
declining eagle populations squarely on DDT, citing the insecticide as the
cause of most eagle declines from the mid-50s to the mid-70s. Eggs became
either infertile, or their thin shells would break under the weight of the
adults.
Only with the banning of the pesticide did eagle numbers begin to rebound.
Knight pointed out that all eagles and all other native birds are protected by
the federal Migratory Bird Act. Eagles are further protected by the federal
Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
"To my knowledge, the first eagle nest in the region occurred at Holston Army
Ammunition Plant in Hawkins County about 2005," Knight said. "They were
probably nesting on Douglas Lake a few years before that."
Knight said a couple of eagle nests have been found in Southwest Virginia
within the past four years.
As eagle numbers rise, people will begin to encounter them more often.
That's already happening, according to both Coffey and Knight.
Coffey cited the example of a nest on the south fork of the Holston River.
"The nest, which is a few miles from Bluff City, is located on a road with many
houses," Coffey said. "Children are playing and running around in the field
almost directly under the nest. Cars pass by often and lawnmowers run within a
couple of hundred yards of the nest."
"Word of something like this spreads quickly, and everyone tells everyone," he
said. "I know that such close involvement goes against the 'wild aspect' we
have always been told was so important. When the government first began to
protect bald eagles, you could not walk within a mile or cut trees within a
mile or do anything even remotely close to a bald eagle's nest. That was
federal law.
"Of course, nests are still protected by federal law," Coffey added. "But the
eagles are choosing to nest close to us and are being successful, and that is
why we are having this explosion of a nesting population."
In the final analysis, Coffey thinks that is a good thing.
The Honeycutts would certainly agree. The couple are looking forward to
watching the progress of the nest at Wilbur Lake.
"They're so beautiful," Carolyn Honeycutt said.
Other related posts:
- » [Bristol-Birds] Nesting eagles at Wilbur Lake -- historic first for Carter Co. - Wallace Coffey
