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	Eagles in 2001

Breakthrough Year for Bald Eagles

by By Chris Martin, Senior Biologist

Breathtaking view of the Androscoggin Valley from the Pontook Reservoir eagle nest. Photo by Photo by Michael Amaral/USFWS New Hampshire's breeding Bald Eagle population had a breakthrough year in 2001, generating a lot of excitement and, in one case, also creating a fair amount of controversy. Before this past summer, over 50 years had passed since Granite State residents last could boast of having more than one successful Bald Eagle nest or more than two young eaglets produced in any given year. The 2001 breeding season changed that situation in a very big way! Based on observations made by Audubon staff and volunteers, along with additional reports received from New Hampshire Fish and Game biologists and the general public, we believe that the state hosted eight territorial pairs of Bald Eagles in 2001. At least six of those eight pairs built nests, and four of the pairs attempted to incubate eggs. All four incubating pairs were successful, producing a combined total of six young eagles that took their first flights in July or August. In each of the categories just mentioned above, eagles achieved levels of breeding success not documented in New Hampshire in well over half a century! The Bald Eagle remains classified as threatened on the federal list and endangered in New Hampshire, but things are looking brighter for them. Here's a site-by-site summary of highlights from the 2001 season, beginning with our four successful nests. Umbagog Lake North (Errol) - Fledged 1 young. The state's longest continuously occupied territory, located at the junction of the Androscoggin and Magalloway rivers, has produced 16 young eagles in ten successful breeding seasons starting in 1989. While the original breeding female, now 16 years old, remains on the territory, the unbanded male that accompanied her in 2001 is her third partner in a little over a decade. Umbagog Lake South (Errol) - Fledged 1 young. When they were first identified in 2000, the pair was nesting in a tree on the Maine side of the state line. In 2001, they were added to New Hampshire's list because they shifted their nest site one quarter-mile to the west. We currently know very little about the ages or origins of these two birds. Two six-week old eaglets at the Pontook Reservoir eagle nest. Photo by Michael Amaral/USFWS Pontook Reservoir (Dummer) - Fledged 2 color-banded young. Successful in their first attempt at raising young, this pair's nest is perched 84 feet up in a 102-foot-tall white pine tree that overlooks the Magill Bay section of the Androscoggin River, about one mile upstream from the Pontook Dam. In late June, Audubon coordinated a climb into this nest, during which U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Michael Amaral examined and banded the two six-week-old eaglets. The five-year-old female is a color-banded bird that was raised somewhere in Massachusetts. The unbanded sub-adult male is new on the territory this year. Vernon Dam (Hinsdale) - Fledged 2 young. After failing to raise young successfully in 2000 during their first breeding attempt, this pair returned to their nest in a huge cottonwood tree on Stebbins Island and had much better luck in 2001. The adult female here is "W30," an eight-year-old bird that was raised further south on the Connecticut River in Northampton, Massachusetts. The adult male wears a black color-band (likely raised in New Hampshire or Connecticut), but for three years he has avoided close approach by observers with spotting scopes, so his precise identity remains a mystery. Merrimack River (Bedford) - Late last January, two eagles began to create a new nest in a relatively limited section of intact riparian habitat on the Merrimack River south of downtown Manchester. Volunteer eagle-watchers documented the entire nest-building process with notes and photographs, even seeing the pair mating on several occasions, but these birds did not attempt to incubate eggs in 2001. In fact, after mid-March the birds spent little, if any, time near the nest. Both adults were unbanded, so it will be a challenge to confirm whether the same individual eagles return to the nesting area in the months ahead. Yet confirming the presence or absence of eagles at this site has become a critically important task, since this new nest is located less than 400 feet from where an additional highway bridge across the Merrimack might be built, if state and federal officials decide to approve construction of the proposed Manchester Airport Access Road. Lake Francis (Pittsburg) - In April 2001, near Lake Francis State Park where the Connecticut River enters the lake, an adult female and a sub-adult male eagle took over a nest that had previously been occupied by an Osprey pair. One Audubon volunteer reported seeing the eagles flying and perching together at the nest, carrying and arranging sticks, and rebuffing efforts by Ospreys to reclaim their old home. These eagles did not attempt to incubate eggs this year, and their unattended nest eventually fell from the tree, but eagles continued to be reported on Lake Francis and elsewhere in the vicinity throughout the summer. This is an area that should be carefully watched in the spring of 2002. Nubanusit Lake area (Hancock/Nelson) - As best we could determine, this pair took a year off after failing in nesting attempts in two different trees during 1999 and 2000. They continued to be seen together in 2001, favoring an area on Nubanusit Lake known as Inspiration Point. Squam Lakes area (Holderness and three adjacent towns) - For the second consecutive year, a pair of adult eagles was in residence in the Squam Lakes area, but no actual nest has yet been located. The birds seem to prefer the many islands clustered in the middle of Squam Lake. This is another area to be watched closely in 2002.