HUNTINGDON – Despite the Philadelphia Eagles football team’s loss this past weekend, Pennsylvania’s bald eagles that winter over at Huntingdon County’s Raystown Lake have scored big.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s annual midwinter eagle survey, which was conducted the week of Jan. 8, produced the highest number of birds sighted since the survey began in 1990.
This year, survey monitors included Southcentral Region Land Management Supervisor Rob Criswell, Southcentral Region Wildlife Management Supervisor Justin Vreeland, Huntingdon County Wildlife Conservation Officer Rod Danley and Southcentral Region Information and Education Supervisor Don Garner.
The team documented a total of 14 birds on a 110-mile trip around the shores of the largest lake totally within Pennsylvania’s borders. An additional ground-based survey by Jamie Zambo, Southcentral Region Wildlife Diversity Biologist, on the Raystown Branch and Juniata downstream to Mt. Union produced no sightings. Of those 14, seven mature eagles had the characteristic snowy white head and tail feathers. The remaining, classified as sub-adult, are full sized, but possess dull, overall brown feathers. It takes an immature bald eagle at least four years to obtain the well-known ‘adult’ plumage and sexual maturity.
The Game Commission’s annual survey is a cooperative effort with the U.S. Geological Survey and is conducted during winter because of the habits of bald eagles. Bald eagles catch fish for food and scavenge carrion, but do not normally pursue land animals. Birds from northern extremes migrate to Raystown Lake in the winter to find the open water necessary to fish. In recent years, eagle nests at Raystown Lake have been protected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Game Commission by marking them ‘off limits’ during the nesting season. The midwinter count now includes both visiting birds and those already ‘at home’ on Raystown Lake.
“We documented, perhaps, three distinct family units, which are adult eagles accompanied by fledglings of the previous year,” Criswell said.
“Years ago when we went on this survey, any bald eagles we saw were often specks in the sky escaping over ridges or birds that flushed a quarter of a mile in front of us,” Garner added. “This year it was amazing how close we got to them, and several of the eagles never left their perch when we traveled by. They are clearly acclimating to boat traffic on the lake.”
Vreeland noted that only in recent years have eagle numbers begun to climb.
“In 1990, the first year of the survey, two eagles were logged in on Raystown,” Vreeland said. “The lowest years were 1992 and 1996, when only one was seen. In 2001, there were eight, and last year 13. Of course weather and several other factors will make these numbers vary from year to year. But, the trend is very positive.”
In 2006, Game Commission employees recorded for the first time more than 100 bald eagle nests within Pennsylvania’s borders.
“If you are old enough to read this, then you are old enough to remember when a bald eagle was something seen in a magazine article or TV documentary, but never in the wild,” Danley said. “We saw one directly across from the Aitch boat launch, and the best place to go to get a glimpse of one is probably around the dam and spillway. But, they are out there.”
