Bald Eagles Nesting Again In Fairfield County

By Kendra Bobowick

“I just had a suspicion,” said Newtown resident Larry Fischer, Western Connecticut Bird Club president.

After noticing “a lot of activity in a small area,” he said, “I went looking.” Watching this spring as a bald eagle gathered clumps of grass, he thought, “That’s for a nest.” This week he recalled the spring day earlier this year when he stepped into climbing gear to pull himself 90 feet above ground and up a mature pine tree. What would he find? “I already knew,” he admitted.

Bald eagle chicks about seven weeks old were perched there — the first nest Fairfield County has seen in decades, as far as he is aware. Mr Fischer discovered the nest on a “protected watershed property” owned by the Aquarion water company. He knows of another site along Lake Lillinonah that is not in Fairfield County, however. Wildlife Biologist Julie Victoria said, “What do you think it means! That’s great. To have bald eagles nesting is pretty special.”

“We’re finally doing something right,” Mr Fischer said. “It’s an exciting thing to happen in Fairfield County. This is the first on record in recent years. It’s an indicator of health of the environment…”

An amateur ornithologist, Mr Fischer has been tracking bird activity since the 1980s. Contaminants had driven away the eagle population in the mid-20th Century, although they have returned in winter months to roost and hunt, but not necessarily to nest. What are the implications?

Nests have not been documented in this county since the 1940s, or 1950s, or even earlier. “We don’t have a history or records,” Ms Victoria said. She is certain that Mr Fischer has found the only nest in the county. Noting that Fairfield County is densely populated, she said, “With so many people and so many eyes, could others be out there … probably not.” She is impressed at the secluded place the eagles have found, considering the population, and hopes they remain a secret, she said. She also hopes that the eagles — inclined to nest with the same partner at the same location — will return next season.

During Colonial days bald eagles were “all over the place” in the East, Mr Fischer said. By the mid-1900s they were pushed out primarily by diminishing habitat, pollutants, and hunting. On the federal endangered species list until recently, bald eagles still are a protected bird in Connecticut. The first documented nesting pair was in Litchfield County in 1992, according to the Department of Environmental Protection’s website. Five years later another pair nested successfully. “The nesting population has increased gradually and, in 2007, 15 pairs of bald eagles made nesting attempts in the state,” the web information explains. Ms Victoria confirmed, “We had eagles in the 1950s, then none until 1992; it has taken us this long and it has been slow.” She is pleased with the progress.

In the pre-1950s there were “lots of eagles” in Connecticut, said Mr Fischer, but since the DDT years — a pesticide that accumulated in the food supply — eagles were extirpated, or uprooted from their habitat.

Returning to his story from earlier this spring, he knew before climbing 90 feet that the eagles would be there. “I had observed them from a distant point,” he said. About eight pounds each and nearly full-grown, he said, “They were a little aggressive,” but not impossible to bundle into a canvas bag, one at a time, as he lowered them to Ms Victoria, who placed a field-readable band on the bird. “The band is helpful if eagles go to wintering areas where we can read the band,” she said. Once the bird fledges, however, they may not see it again.

The color bands are visible with spotting scopes. “Maybe they’ll show up at the Shepaug Dam … many of Connecticut’s eagles show up at the Hudson River — that’s what people have sighted them,” Mr Fischer explained.

Describing his climb and the nest, he said, “It’s a different world up there, not too many people experience that; not too many people climb 90 feet off the ground to sit in an eagle’s nest.”

Learn more at www.

ct.gov/DEP/site/default.a