Spring Eagle Survey counts bald eagles and nests across the region
Conducted March 1 by the Eagle Brigade of Southern West Virginia, the annual survey found 36 bald eagles and one golden eagle, according to the survey results compiled by Jim Phillips, who organizes the annual count. The Three Rivers Avian Center, Bibbee Nature Club, the Hanging Rock Migration Observatory, Pipestem State Park and guests are all part of the Eagle Brigade.
According to the survey's results, five bald eagles were spotted around Alderson, Barger Springs and Bellepoint by Jim and Judy Phillips. One adult bald eagle around Alderson and another adult was seen around Barger Springs area.
The Athens Lake area was checked, but no eagles were sighted, according to the March 1 survey.
At the Brooks Island Overlook, three bald eagles including an adult and two younger birds were counted.
No eagles were seen around the Greenbrier County Landfill, but at R.D. Bailey Lake near Mullens, spotted two adult bald eagles were spotted.
In the area known as the Mouth of the Bluestone or Pits, a total of six bald eagles of varying ages were counted.
At the Red Sulphur Springs and State Line areas, one adult bald eagle was counted. Two adult bald eagles and one golden eagle were sighted at Hans Creek Valley.
Another two adult eagles were counted in the Greenville area. Two adult bald eagles were sighted in the Rich Creek Valley Road area, but no eagles were counted in the Hillsdale Tollgate Road area.
In the Lake Stephens area, three adult bald eagles were sighted. In the Paint Creek and Boiling Springs areas, two bald eagles — one adult and a younger bird — were counted.
Over in Greenbrier County, nine adult bald eagles were seen in the Meadow River area, two adult bald eagles were seen in the Blue Sulphur Pike area, but no eagles were seen around Fairview Road. Two bald eagles — one adult and a sub-adult — were counted in the Tuckahoe Lake area and two adults were seen at the Howards Creek area.
Jim Phillips said that when the surveys were conducted back in the Seventies and Eighties, participants were lucky if they counted one bald eagle. The situation started changing when the pesticide DDT was banned.
Fish and other prey contaminated with DDT would get the poison into raptors and weaken their egg shells, making it harder for them to reproduce. DDT was banned in 1972.
Raptors like eagles and hawks still face threats such as lead poisoning and discarded fishing line. Hunters and fishing enthusiasts are now urged to use non-lead ammunition and avoid using lead fishing sinkers. Lead ammunition can fragment when it strikes a deer or any other animal, spreading tiny fragments that contaminate the meat. Birds and other animals can get tangled up in discarded fishing line, Phillips said.
Thirty-three people participated in the March 1 eagle survey. They included Wendy and Ron Perrone with the Three Rivers Avian Center, Sam Richmond; Jason, Duane and Kathy Dotson; Steve Barrett; Jack O'Connel; Julie McQuade; Rodney Davis; Jeff Hajenga; Linda Miller; Bill Post; Candice Helms; Aaron, April and Abigail Jenelle; Bev and Jim Triplett; Amy Nelson; Mary Kasarda, Cletus and Terry; Maury Johnson; Bob Carter; Sharyn Ogden; Allen and Mindy Waldron; Brian Hirt; and Randall Yoder; and Pam Withrow.
Contact Greg Jordan at
gjordan@bdtonline.com
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The fish-eating raptor known for gymnastic dives and whistle-like chirps is an American conservation success story. After pesticides and other hazards nearly eliminated the species from much of the country, the hawk-like bird rebounded after the banning of DDT in 1972 and now numbers in the thousands in the U.S. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up But Watts has documented an alarming trend. The birds, which breed in many parts of the U.S., are failing to successfully fledge enough chicks around their key population center of the Chesapeake Bay. The longtime biologist blames the decline of menhaden, a small schooling fish critical to the osprey diet. Without menhaden to eat, chicks are starving and dying in nests, Watts said. Advertisement Watts's claim has put him and environmental groups at odds with the fishing industry, trade unions and sometimes government regulators. Menhaden is valuable for fish oil, fish meal and agricultural food as well as bait. U.S. fishermen have caught at least 1.1 billion pounds of menhaden every year since 1951. Members of the industry tout its sustainability and said the decline in osprey may have nothing to do with fishing. Advertisement But without help, the osprey population could tumble to levels not seen since the dark days of DDT, said Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. 'The osprey are yelling pretty loudly that, hey, there's not enough menhaden for us to reproduce successfully,' Watts said. 'And we should be listening to them to be more informed fully on the fisheries side, and we should take precaution on the fisheries management side. But that hasn't won the day at this point.' Watts, who has studied osprey on the Chesapeake for decades, has backed his claims of population decline by publishing studies in scientific journals. He said it boils down to a simple statistic — to maintain population, osprey pairs need to average 1.15 chicks per year. Osprey were reproducing at that level in the 1980s, but today in some areas around the main stem of the Chesapeake, it's less than half of that, Watts said. In particularly distressed areas, they aren't even reproducing at one-tenth that level, he said. And the decline in available menhaden matches the areas of nesting failure, Watts said. Also called pogies or bunkers, the oily menhaden are especially important for young birds because they are more nutritious than other fish in the sea. Osprey 'reproductive performance is inextricably linked to the availability and abundance' of menhaden, Watts wrote in a 2023 study published in Frontiers in Marine Science. Conservationists have been concerned for years, saying too many menhaden have been removed to maintain their crucial role in the ocean food chain. Historian H. Bruce Franklin went so far as to title his 2007 book on menhaden 'The Most Important Fish In The Sea.' Advertisement Menhaden help sustain one of the world's largest fisheries, worth more than $200 million at the docks in 2023. Used as bait, the fish are critical for valuable commercial targets such as Maine lobster. They're also beloved by sportfishermen. The modern industry is dominated by Omega Protein, a Reedville, Virginia, company that is a subsidiary of Canadian aquaculture giant Cooke. The harvesting of the menhaden is performed by an American company, Ocean Harvesters, which is based in Reedville and contracts with Omega, which handles processing. The companies pushed back at the idea that fishing is the cause of osprey decline, although they did acknowledge that fewer menhaden are showing up in some parts of the bay. Federal data show osprey breeding is in decline in many parts of the country, including where menhaden is not harvested at all, said Ben Landry, an Omega spokesperson. Climate change, pollution and development could be playing a role, said Landry and others with the company. Blaming fishing 'just reeks of environmental special interest groups having an influence over the process,' Landry said. The menhaden fishery is managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, an interstate body that crafts rules and sets fishing quotas. Prompted by questions about ospreys, it created a work group to address precautionary management of the species in the Chesapeake Bay. In April, this group proposed several potential management approaches, including seasonal closures, restrictions on quotas or days at sea, and limitations on kinds of fishing gear. The process of creating new rules could begin this summer, said James Boyle, fishery management plan coordinator with the commission. Advertisement The osprey population has indeed shown declines in some areas since 2012, but it's important to remember the bird's population is much larger than it was before DDT was banned, Boyle said. 'There are big increases in osprey population since the DDT era,' Boyle said, citing federal data showing a six-fold increase in osprey populations along the Atlantic Coast since the 1960s. To a number of environmental groups, any decline is too much. This irritates some labor leaders who worry about losing more jobs as the fishing industry declines. Kenny Pinkard, retired vice president of UFCW Local 400's executive board and a longtime Virginia fishermen, said he feels the industry is being scapegoated. 'There are some people who just don't want to see us in business at all,' he said. But Chris Moore, Virginia executive director for Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the country risks losing an iconic bird if no action is taken. He said Watts's studies show that the osprey will fail without access to menhaden. 'Osprey have been a success story,' Moore said. 'We're in a situation where they're not replacing their numbers. We'll actually be in a situation where we're in a steep decline.'
