Ohio’s Bald Eagles Have Healthy Year
Bob Downing – Bald eagles enjoyed another good year in Ohio. Ohio had a record 215 nests, of which 113 were known to produce eaglets, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said. Based on reports from wildlife biologists and volunteers, Ohio estimates a minimum of 197 eaglets were hatched from nests in 52 counties, including Medina, Stark and Cuyahoga.
Ohio had a record 222 eaglet hatched last year. But Ohio has no information on how many eaglets might have hatched from 55 of those 113 nests so the 2009 total is probably higher, said Andrea Tibbels, bald eagle project coordinator with the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
Ohio could have had another record year in 2009, but it is impossible to know for sure, she said.
In 2008, Ohio had 184 nests, of which 119 produced eaglets. How many eaglets might have been hatched in 16 nests was not determined.
In the Akron-Canton-Cleveland area, Tibbels said: there were three successful nests this year: a new nest with two eaglets at Chippewa Lake in Medina County; a nest with two young at Walborn Reservoir in Stark County’s Marlboro Township; and a new nest with one eaglet in Cleveland Metroparks’ Rocky River Reservation near Cleveland Hopkins Airport.
Nests that failed in 2009 were located at the Pinery Narrows area of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Brecksville; at Nimisila Reservoir in Green; at Tinkers Creek in Aurora; at Wingfoot Lake in Portage County’s Suffield Township; and in Killbuck Marsh in southwestern Wayne County, she said.
Tibbels said the state has no information about three other nests in Portage County: near Lake Rockwell north of Kent, at Breakneck Creek between Kent and Ravenna, and near Lake Milton.
Ohio had 33 new nests this year. The 2009 numbers mark the 22nd consecutive year that the state’s breeding eagle population has increased, according to the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
Ohio had dropped to four eagle nests on Lake Erie in 1979 because of pesticides and loss of habitat.
After its remarkable comeback, the bald eagle was removed from the federal endangered species list three years ago.