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Hernando Today

Eagles repopulate James River area

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 22, 2009

in 2008.

Today, a nearly 40-mile stretch of the tidal, freshwater James - from the Dutch Gap area near Chester to eastern Charles City County - harbors one of the country's top concentrations of eagles, herons and other fish-eating birds. The National Audubon Society has designated the region an Important Bird Area, a high compliment among conservationists.

"It's important on a continental scale," Watts said of the stretch.

It's not entirely clear why the birds gather so heavily there. But the stretch is bordered by extensive forests and swamps they inhabit, and the river offers lots of food such as shad and blue catfish.

Now, another challenge.

People, like eagles, enjoy living by water. Development has destroyed an average of 77 square miles of eagle territory - about the area of the city of Richmond - each of the past 20 years in the Virginia-Maryland bay region, Watts said.

When eagles don't have enough space, they fight. And scientists are seeing more of that.

At the Norfolk Botanical Garden last year, for example, an intruding female knocked a mother eagle off her nest temporarily, causing the mother's eggs to die.

"There are indications now that we're reaching saturation" of eagle territories, Watts said.

If eagles face tough times again, scientists like Watts hope to be armed with new information to help them.

Watts peered through a small window in his blind. About 7 a.m., a couple of turkey vultures dropped in to check out the deer meat.

That was a good sign. Eagles are extremely wary, but they sometimes take a vulture's presence as an all-clear signal.

Sure enough, an eagle swooped down to dine. From its mottled brown-and-white feathers, it appeared to be young, about 3. Eagles don't get their classic white head, white tail and brown body until about age 5, when they're old enough to breed.

In a separate blind, Mojica fingered a button that would set off the rockets. When the eagle dipped its head to eat, Mojica pushed.

An ear-ringing blast shot the net over the eagle. Like rockets themselves, Mojica and Watts rushed to uncover the struggling bird.

They used a leather hood to calm it - eagles find darkness soothing - and Watts carried the bird like a baby to his truck.

The scientists weighed and measured the eagle and attached a purple leg band identifying it as C-9. The label was so large that anyone could identify the bird from a distance.

The male eagle weighed nearly 8 pounds, with a wingspan approaching 6 feet. That's typical for a male in this area but much smaller than a female, which can weigh 12 pounds and have a 7-foot span.

From the bird's breast, Mojica took a feather, which will be tested for contaminants like mercury.

Watts plans to trap, band and pluck feathers from about 200 eagles over four or five years. This is the project's first year, and C-9 was the first capture.

Scientists know a lot about the number of eagles in the bay region, but they don't know a lot about how far they travel, how long they live, when they start breeding and the contaminants they are exposed to.

The trapping of little C-9 and others may provide that information some day, as people report the birds and their activities in Virginia and other states.

By the James, Watts heaved C-9 into the air. The wild-eyed pioneer took off on strong wings, shot straight downriver and disappeared behind a stand of cypress trees.

Rex Springston is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

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