Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada
PREPARING FOR THE EAGLE’S RETURN
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 (Napanee Beaver)
Friday, November 02, 2007 (Picton Gazette)
Recent summer sightings of adult bald eagles in both the Sawguin Creek watershed and the South Bay areas of Prince Edward County are getting local residents excited. Some older residents may even remember when they used to nest all up and down the Long Point Peninsula in the southern portions of the county. While eagles in the fall and winter months are pretty routine now, summer sightings of fully mature adult birds begs the question, are they nesting now, or will they be nesting in years to come as their numbers continue to increase?
I have the pleasure on November 7th of joining MNR biologist Kate Maddigan as we present our take on the situation at a special bald eagle presentation in Picton. The special workshop is being presented by the Prince Edward Land Stewardship Council, and takes place at the Picton Town Hall (above the fire hall) at the corner of Ross and King Streets, commencing at 7:00 p.m. At this presentation, Kate Maddigan and I will touch on the historical and current use of Prince Edward County by bald eagles, and what efforts are being considered to encourage the return of nesting eagles, and what habitat requirements need to be present for this to happen. A lot of very large hawks end up being reported as “bald eagles.” We will endeavour to point out a few characteristics of these majestic birds to alleviate difficulties in identification. There is no charge to attend this presentation.
Bald eagles are now regularly seen in winter in Prince Edward County as they scour the shorelines where they feed on fish and carrion. One of the best areas is Adolphustown Reach where I have seen as many as a dozen loafing on the ice, or flying the circuit between Glenora Ferry and Prinyer’s Cove. Sometimes they will line up on the edge of some open water and attempt to snatch fish brought to the surface by mergansers.
The decline of this majestic species since the 1800s in Prince Edward County, is a sad story. The written accounts of early observers tell of zealous collectors shooting birds and robbing their nests of eggs. The introduction of DDT in the 1940s proved to be a further setback as it caused many eagles to produce eggs with shells so thin that they collapsed under the weight of the bird.
Timber Island, located just offshore from Prince Edward Point, was the last stronghold of the bald eagle. Records date back to 1917 when the late Edwin Beaupre of Kingston photographed a nest on June 6th of that year. He was of the opinion that the eagles had nested on this 100-acre island for more than a century. Lester Snyder, in his Faunal Survey of Prince Edward County in 1930, recorded at least two pairs nesting in 1930, one on Timber Island and another along the Long Point Peninsula.
The Toronto ‘Globe’ in February of 1932 stated that three bald eagles were wintering on Timber Island that year. The Picton Gazette reported four making daily trips from the island to the mainland during the winter of 1938 to 1939. In February, 1934 the late historian Willis Metcalf, who took a keen interest in the Timber Island nestings, crossed the ice to look at one of the huge nests, located in a large elm tree on the west side of the island. Willis photographed his twin brother Willard standing erect in the high nest. I will be including that famous photograph in my presentation on November 7th. Some of the sticks used in the construction of that nest were said to be over four feet in length and an inch in thickness.
A nest on Main Duck Island in 1945 was the last record of any nesting activity in the area. By the late 1950s, the eagle population had been devastated. DDT was banned in 1972. Between 1960 and 1980, there were fewer than a dozen sightings in total of bald eagles in the area, and none was nesting. Even as recently as 1990, and in the few years immediately preceding, there were fewer than two sightings a year of bald eagles. By the mid 1990s, numbers started to noticeably rise, and since 2000, there have been close to 50 sightings per year. While some of these sightings may be attributed to a few of the same individuals being involved in the different sightings, and more knowledgeable observers in the field looking for bald eagles, we still cannot deny that an increase has been taking place. Thirty-three were tallied on one recent Prince Edward County area Christmas bird count, and sightings of a dozen or so during heavy hawk migrations in the fall are now common. On September 18, 2004, during a major hawk passage at Prince Edward Point, 20 bald eagles casually floated by on one memorable day.
Still, they are not nesting, but recent summer sightings of adult birds, suggest that the day is not far off. Join us if you can on November 7th, and we will tell you what we are doing to prepare for their return to the Quinte area as a nesting species, and how you can be a part of that process.