General News: Bald Eagle Population Down in Mid-Hudson
Bald Eagle in Flight. Photo by Maureen Moore.
January 23, 2012
The bald eagle census in the mid-Hudson found fewer birds this year, due largely to the warm temperatures.
Tom Lake, a naturalist with the Department of Environmental Conservation, writes that eagles usually head south of the Bear Mountain Bridge in winter, where the ice-free waters mean they can find more fish than in the frozen waters to the north. This year the winter’s mildness means the eagles have not had to fly as far south to find open water.
Naturalist Ed McGowan reports that in a bald eagle night roost survey in the mid-Hudson area earlier this month, they counted only 27 birds in six roost sites, compared to numbers between 60 and 100 in recent years.
Maureen Moore is one of the people who likes to go out looking for eagles. She knows where to go and earlier this month took these photos of an adult bald eagle in flight. She says an immature eagle was with the adult, but it eluded her lens.
Comments:
I have noticed that there are definitely a lot less eagles this year then I have seen in past years. Usually the Hudson River is frozen by the beginning of January. The frozen river makes it much easier to spot the birds.
