Page 42 - On the Banding of Eagles

ISSUE : Issue 31

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1982/6/1

one--and I'm not sure we even have one that's on a cliff face. The main nest in Cape Breton is actually found in a large, over-mature tree. Usually pine or hemlock, but we-have found them in sugar maple, in birch, in poplar, in fir and spruce as well--large, over-mature trees. We've found them in almost everything, but the main ones are the hemlock and pine. The main thing is they usually have a very good view of water. They're not necessarily on a large body of water, but they're near e- nough to see it from the nest. And there's usually a brook or some flowing water very close to the nest as well. (In Herrick, he goes into some detail about their accumulative nest--that they return to it year after year--or as you say, on roughly alternate years--building it up and making quite a....) Quite an elaborate structure, yes. There are some that, when we're banding, we actually sit right in the nest. That's the only way we can band them because of the branches not being quite right for sitting on. You can actually sit right in some of those nests. They're that big--very, very large and sturdy structures. And they continue to use them until the tree blows down, or a storm blows a nest out of a tree. We had one near Long Island that blew out three years in a row. The birds would build it and it would blow out, and build it, and blow out. We're not sure what happened, but that pair was never suc? cessful. (My understanding is that our Cape Breton population, while not an enormous popula? tion, is a significant one for east of the Rockies.) Yes, that's correct. It's very, very large for northeastern North America. It's likely the largest north of Florida on the east coast. That's basically due to the richness of the Bras d'Or Lakes; and also the fact that we never really use pesti? cides or chemicals in the forest industry. Areas like New Brunswick have much lower populations. And Maine was down to about one nest a few years ago. They're back up to 20 or 25 now, but they were way down. In Cape Breton County alone we knew of 39 nests. Now that isn't all successful last year. We have 22 in Richmond County. And I'd say likely 50 in Victoria County; and likely 30 to 35, maybe 40, in Inverness County. (Dan Banks, Lands and Forests biologist res? ponsible mainly for the western side of the island, added that we know of 46 nesting sites in Inverness County. He meant by that ANNOUNCING AN IMPORTANT NEW BOOK 'V' Cape Breton ;?y ''

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