Bald eagles flock back to Indiana
Bald eagles were once a rare sight in the Hoosier state, but no more.
It’s becoming more common to see bald eagles in the skies or perched in trees or on poles around Geist Reservoir, Eagle Creek, the White River and many other rivers or lakes in the state.
“Seeing a bald eagle in the wild is a thrill,” said Amy Kearns, a nongame animal biologist with Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Bald eagles are big animals. Females can weigh 14 pounds and have wingspans of 8 feet. Males weigh about 10 pounds with a 6-foot wingspan.
The DNR counts at least active 29 bald eagle nests in Marion and surrounding counties. Statewide there are some 300 known eagle nests, Kearns said.
They gather in the large numbers around Lake Monroe in Bloomington and Salamonie Lake near Wabash.
In Johnson County, Franklin Mayor Joe McGuinness took to Twitter on July 4, appropriately, to express his joy at spotting his “very first bald eagle” while he was playing golf at Hillview Country Club.
In 1991, a national survey by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers counted 88 bald eagles in Indiana. In 2015, Kearns said the count was 243.
Habitat destruction, poaching and contamination from the pesticide DDT pushed bald eagles to the brink of extinction about 50 years ago.
In 1963, there were only 417 pairs of bald eagles nesting in the 48 continental United States.
The birds, federally protected since 1940, were named an endangered species in 1967; the government banned DDT in 1972 and renewed conservation efforts gave eagles more places to nest and hunt.
By 1995, bald eagles were no longer endangered.
In 2006, bald eagles had at least 9,700 nests across the country. The next year, bald eagles were removed from the list of threatened and endangered animals.
Bald eagles are so successful in Indiana these days that conservation officials no longer monitor them closely.
“We used to fly out with the helicopter in the winter to count eagles roosting in their nests,” Kearns said. “The eagles started doing so well, we had so many nests, that it became a huge expense.”
This resurgence is a remarkable success story for a species that disappeared from Indiana in the 1890s.
The rebound comes thanks to a statewide conservation effort that began 30 years ago. DNR officials collected young birds from Wisconsin and Alaska and released them at Lake Monroe from 1985 to 1989.
The birds were collected when they were 5 to 6 weeks old and released when they were capable of flight at about 12 weeks old. About a third of those eagles survived and built their nests in the Indiana.
In May, DNR officials were thrilled when a nature lover and hobby photographer Teresa Bass took a picture of one of the original eagles and discovered the female bird was still nesting at Lake Monroe.
“It is very exciting. I never get tired of seeing eagles,” Bass said.
Bass was on a boat with her husband and two friends, including DNR biologist Cassie Hudson, when they saw the eagle perched on a tree close to the shore.
They brought the boat in as close as they dared, and Bass shot picture after picture with her camera’s 400 millimeter lens. Hudson took the images to DNR eagle experts.
One photo, when magnified, clearly showed the bird’s leg band markings and identified her as “C43,” an eagle taken from Whitestone Harbor in southeastern Alaska and released at Lake Monroe on Sept. 6, 1988.
The experts got another surprise: The pictures showed a featherless area of skin on C43’s chest known as a “brood patch,” which is a sign she had been nesting or raising eaglets.
The eagle was informally named “Jenny” by Al Parker, one of the DNR officials who worked on the bald eagle restoration project in the 1980s. She’s been sighted at Lake Monroe in 1994 and is known to have returned over the years, according to the DNR. She’s also been seen in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.
About 27 years old, C43 is thought to be the oldest eagle in Indiana. Only six banded bald eagles have been documented to live longer, according to the Bird Banding Laboratory at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. The oldest bald eagle known to the lab is 33 years, five months.
On June 28, Paula Jarrett and her husband Dave Hill took photos of an eagle perched on a utility tower near their Greenfield home.
“I’ve never seen an eagle in my neck of the woods before,” said Jarrett, who lives about 10 miles from the nest in Greenfield.
“He or she was just sitting up there looking for all the world like he owned the place.”
Jarrett said there were no song birds around and she recalled seeing ducks flying away in the distance. Bald eagles typically prey on fish, but they also eat small birds and ducks.
“It was very cool to see,” Jarrett said. “I hope we see more of them.”
As the population continues to grow, Kearns said it’s a safe bet that Hoosiers will be seeing more bald eagles.
"A lot of people take inspiration from bald eagles,” Kearns said. “We have an obligation to our kids and grand kids to preserve wildlife diversity.”
Call Star reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.
Bald eagle nests in Central Indiana
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources counts about 300 active bald eagle nests in the state and at least 29 active nests in Central Indiana. Here is the number of Indianapolis-area nests by county.
Marion County: 9
Hamilton County: 2
Hancock County: 1
Boone County: 0
Morgan County: 11
Madison County: 2
Johnson County: 2
Shelby County: 1
Hendricks County: 1
Source: Amy Kearns, nongame animal biologist with Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Best places for bald eagle watching
Bald eagles can be seen near most large bodies of water that have a wooded area nearby. They prey on fish and small birds. Winter months are the best time to find them because they roost in large nesting communities. Here are some of the best places to find bald eagles in Indiana.
Central Indiana: Eagle Creek, Geist Reservoir.
Statewide: Monroe Lake near Bloomington; Salamonie Lake near Wabash; Goose Pond fish and Wildlife Area in Linton.
Source: Amy Kearns, nongame animal biologist with Indiana Department of Natural Resources.