by: Tony Duke
JUNE 1983
"The good news is that more young are being raised in the nests that are still producing". These optimistic words come from Paul Nickerson of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, talking about the bald eagle in the northeastern United States. Paul, who is Staff Specialist, Endangered Species with the USFWS, came to Nova Scotia in June to collect four young eagles as part of the Service's program to improve the population of the country's national bird.
Nova Scotia has a relatively high eagle population with about two young a year produced per active nest. This compares with fewer than one per cent in most of the states. Pesticides poisoning and related egg shell thinning have been blamed. But sine the 1972 ban on the use of DDT and a general cleansing of the environment of "hard pesticides", more eggs are hatching.
This year nearly 100 young eagles were hatched in Cape Breton nests in addition to eaglets produced in mainland nests. The biologists felt that there were enough eagles in the province so that four young could be sent to the US to help build up a regional population.
The eaglets were eight weeks old and almost ready to fly when biologists climbed to the tree top nests. Four young (one each of two pairs and two of triplets) were fitted with leg bands to identify them as Nova Scotian and housed in separated flight cages. They were flown by chartered aircraft directly to their "hack" site in New Jersey.
Hacking is a time proven technique of releasing birds to the wild. The eagles are housed in cages on top of poles where they have a good view of their new home. Their food is given in such a way that they never see people. When they are ready to fly, the cage is left open and they are free to go. Food will be left at the cage site if the birds return. But gradually they learn to fend for themselves.
The USFWS reported at the end of June that the Nova Scotian birds were settled in to the Dividing Creek hack site very well. They began eating fish immediately on arrival and were being monitored continuously by closed circuit television. They are on a twenty acre property overlooking a salt marsh owned by the National Lands Trust.
If plans go well, twenty more birds will be collected this year from Manitoba and Saskatchewan for hacking in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The western provinces have eagle populations measured in the thousands, so more birds can be taken there without harm. Also, because they are farther north they breed later in the year. Paul Nickerson was still collecting birds in Canada at the end of June.
In their new home the eagles should easily adapt to an earlier breeding season. The hope is that, in time, with the help of people like Paul, bald eagle populations will build to the point where they will be off the endangered list.
Going south to help rebuild the United States' bald eagle population. Lands and forests technician George Ball gets an eight week old eagle ready for its shipping crate and Paul Nickerson (left) and Clyde Bolin of the USFWS watch.