Our writer/photographer’s boyhood fascination with bald eagles has become a lifetime hobby.
By the early 1960s, the bald eagle was nearly extinct in the continental U.S. Although native to the Blue Ridge region, prior to the 1980s bald eagles had not been seen here for decades. Now the local population is flourishing and their sightings are becoming commonplace. In Northeast Tennessee specifically, reports of bald eagle sightings on ebird.org date back to 2005, but the local population didn’t really begin rebounding until around 2010.
As a kid, I liked to draw this national symbol of the U.S., checking out bald eagle books from the library since I couldn’t see the birds in person. Growing up in the ‘80s, I was exposed to lots of publicity about how endangered bald eagles were and how important it was to our nation to save them. I never thought it would be possible to see them in the wild one day. Tracking their return to our region is a childhood dream come true.
Over the past couple years, I have been researching and photographing the local nesting pairs. I have located eight nests total—in the Tennessee counties of Carter, Washington, Sullivan, Johnson, Hawkins; in Scott County, Virginia; and in Watauga County, North Carolina.
Some of these nest locations are known by very few people while others are widely known, such as the nests on Boone Lake near Winged Deer Park in Johnson City, Tennessee, and on South Fork Holston River in Bluff City, Tennessee. These two nests have gained thousands of followers thanks to cameras mounted by East Tennessee State University that offer 24/7 coverage of eagle life.
The area’s bald eagle population has rebounded despite the fact that the survival rate of an eagle past its first year is only around 50%. Just this season, two of the nests I visit—the Watauga River and Holston River nests—lost all their eggs and produced no eaglets. Also, the Winged Deer Park nest had three eaglets hatch this season, but unfortunately only one of them survived. The female, named Shima by her fans, has had two different mates and produced 19 eaglets in the Winged Deer nest since 2013, and the South Fork Holston River/Bluff City nesting pair, Eugene and Frances, have produced 20 eaglets since 2012.
Getting good photos has required a lot of patient work. It’s not uncommon to have a dry run, tracking down a nest and never seeing the eagles that day. These birds are creatures of habit, and as you learn their favorite trees for perching, for example, your odds of getting the shot increase. Some of the nests are very hard to get to. Some of them are accessible only by water, so I go out in my kayak with my camera equipment. Some are located in trees on steep terrain. Sometimes permission from landowners is needed in order to observe a nest on their property.
Bald Eagle Facts and Info Sources
In the Blue Ridge Region, Nesting Bald Eagles:
- Normally stay year-round.
- Have one clutch per year.
- Lay their eggs—one to three—at the end of January/beginning of February.
- Eggs are incubated by both parents for a period of around 34 days, hatching around early March.
- The eaglets are around 10-12 weeks old when they fledge. They are essentially the same size as their parents by that time.
- They don’t get their adult colorings until around 5 years old. They are not fully mature until they get their white head, solid brown body and white tail.
- Have a territory of around a three-mile radius.
- Use the same nest year after year.
- Nests are 5-6 feet in diameter, and are added to each year and can get up to eight feet tall. Nests eventually fall or break the limbs supporting them, in which case the eagles normally rebuild in a nearby tree.
More Info:
1. etsu.edu/cas/biology/eagle-cam/previous_seasons.php
2. etsu.edu/cas/biology/eagle-cam/cameras.php
3. easttn.us/attractions/categories.aspx/Wildlife/
The story above first appeared in our November / December 2021 issue.
