Bald Eagles of Colonial NHP

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*Photos Copyrighted and used by permission, Dan Earnhardt, Volunteer,
NPS*

*"...I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our
Country...to lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Fishing Hawk, and
when that diligent bird....has taken a fish... the Bald Eagle pursues
him and takes it from him\.... He is ....by no means a proper emblem for
the brave and honest ...of America who have driven all the King birds
from our Country....For the truth the turkey is in comparison a much
more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America...a
bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the
British Guards\...**" Benjamin Franklin***

**BALD EAGLES in NORTH AMERICA**

Before European settlers first sailed to America\'s shores, bald eagles
may have numbered half a million in North America.

By the 1930s, people became aware of the diminishing bald eagle
population, and in 1940 the Bald Eagle Act was passed. This reduced the
harassment by humans, and eagle populations began to recover.

However, at the same time DDT and other pesticides began to be widely
used. Pesticides sprayed on plants were eaten by small animals, which
were later consumed by birds of prey. The DDT poison harmed both the
adult birds and the eggs that they laid. The egg shells became too thin
to with stand the incubation period, and were often crushed. Eggs that
were not crushed during incubation often did not hatch. Large quantities
of DDT were discovered in the fatty tissues and gonads of dead bald
eagles, which may have caused them to become infertile. By the late
1960's, Virginia's bald eagle breeding population had been decimated by
eggshell thinning and associated low productivity. Also, more than
100,000 bald eagles were killed in Alaska from 1917 to 1953. Alaskan
salmon fisherman feared they were a threat to the salmon population.

Only a handful of species have fought their way back from the United
States\' endangered species list. The California gray whale, the
American alligator, and the bald eagle are a few. Bald eagles were
officially declared an endangered species in 1967 under a law that
preceded the [Endangered Species Act of
1973](http://www.fws.gov/r9endspp/esa.html).  Once endangered in all of
the lower 48 states, the bald eagle\'s status was upgraded to
\"threatened\" in 1995, two decades after the banning of DDT and the
passing of laws to protect both eagles and their nesting trees.

**VIRGINIA**

For a five-year period, between 1974 and 1979, no Bald Eagles were known
to nest on the James River. Since that time, the population has
rebounded dramatically. In the spring of 2004, the James River supported
98 breeding pairs of bald eagles and produced 155 chicks. During the
2004 breeding season, the annual survey documented 428 occupied Bald
Eagle territories in Virginia.

In 2003 the Virginia Bald Eagle population produced the largest number
of chicks ever recorded in the state. A total of 612 chicks were
produced surpassing the 501 chicks produced in 2002 by more than 20%.
Per capita reproductive rate was the second highest in the survey's
history.

**Bald Eagles at Colonial National Historical Park**

Maintaining threatened ecosystems in the wake of a growing human
population is one of the greatest conservation challenge faced by land
managers within the mid-Atlantic region. Due to their broad distribution
and regional abundance, government-owned lands represent one of the most
promising opportunities to preserve threatened communities. However,
finding the appropriate balance between resource conservation and
ongoing operations is often a difficult task. This tradeoff may be
particularly difficult when one of the primary missions involves public
access. The Colonial National Historical Park contains a complex of
historic lands that extend from Jamestown Island to Yorktown. In
addition to their historic value, lands within the park support
ecosystems that provide critical habitat to plant and animal populations
of regional conservation concern.

Historically, Jamestown Island has been an important breeding area for
Bald Eagles. Bald Eagle has been observed back to at least 1933.

Plans to expand facilities on Jamestown Island in preparation for the
2007 celebration of the 400^th^ anniversary of the founding of Jamestown
were reviewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered
Species Act. One of the conditions to allow plans to go forward for the
2007 celebration was to monitor Bald Eagle nests for potential impacts
resulting from human activities. Working with the College of William and
Mary's, Center for Conservation Biology a video-monitoring system is
installed to monitor eagle nesting activity and potential human
disturbance in areas nearby the nest. Video feeds are recorded daily.
Images are retrieved and reviewed regularly.

**RESULTS**

In 2003 the breeding pair laid 3 eggs in early February. All 3 eggs
hatched in mid-March and all 3 chicks fledged (began to fly) around the
end of May. Parental attendance at the nest was very high. The nest was
exposed without adults present for less than 3 minutes/day.

A total of 497 potential disturbance events (traffic, boats, and
airplanes. visitors) were evaluated for response at the nest by the
breeding eagles. In no case did eagles give any indication that they
acknowledged the disturbance event. However, construction of the new
visitor center has not begun yet.