Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Eaglet boomlet

After the hurricanes, bald eagles rebuilt nests and mated. In crowded skies, they fight for lofty spots, even to death.

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published March 23, 2005

[Times photo: Scott Keeler]

An adult bald eagle watches its young Tuesday in the Grey Oaks subdivision of East Lake. Because of loss of habitat, territorial fights are expected to increase. "The females are probably more aggressive than the males," says Lynda White of Audubon EagleWatch. "They are bigger and stronger. To defend their territory, they will fight to the death."

	[Photo by Tobi Leotta]
	Rob Ulery, a veterinarian technician at Animal & Bird Medical Center in Palm Harbor, holds an injured bald eagle late last month so that it can get an injection of antibiotics.
	[Times photo: Scott Keeler]
	Two eaglets perch on their nest Tuesday in the Grey Oaks subdivision. In the nesting season, about October to mid May, bald eagles seek out tall pine trees in their familiar territories but can be resourceful. Cellular towers are also home to eaglets in Pinellas County.

PALM HARBOR - Christy Holley was on her way home from work at Allen's Ridge Animal Hospital when she got the call. A bird, possibly a bald eagle, was down in Palm Harbor.

In the dark, she and a volunteer spotted the white head and tail feathers of a mature bald eagle between two big houses in the Highlands of Innisbrook off Alt. U.S. 19.

"He was very lethargic, cold, wounded," said Holley, a veterinary technician and licensed wildlife rehabilitator. "He was limping and should have been able to fly, but he was too weak."

A veterinarian who treated the bird said the young male most likely was injured in a territorial fight, a growing phenomenon in Florida. Although the number of bald eagles is increasing, their habitat is decreasing. Mature eagles find fewer places left to start a family, so they fight to take or defend a territory.

"Loss of habitat continues to be such a serious problem for these birds," said Lynda White, the Audubon EagleWatch coordinator at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland.

Locally, bald eagles have claimed territories throughout the county. Nesting birds have set up housekeeping south of the Bayside Bridge in Largo, in a cell tower near U.S. 19 south of Belleair Road and in various North Pinellas locations.

"They all have chicks, as far as we know," said Joan Brigham of Clearwater, organizer of Audubon's North Pinellas EagleWatchers, "except for the cell tower on (State Road) 590" at the intersection of McMullen-Booth and Coachman roads.

That cell tower produced three eaglets last year. This year, the eagles could be in another nest in their territory. A new nest with at least one fuzzy eaglet was discovered on a cell tower off Main Street in Safety Harbor this year.

Habitats elsewhere in Florida are just as crowded. Unless Floridians learn to live with the eagles, White predicts a decline in the population. And the fights will continue to increase.

A female eagle, injured recently in a horrific fight, arrived at the center with a gaping chest wound.

"The females are probably more aggressive than the males," said White. "They are bigger and stronger. To defend their territory, they will fight to the death."

After last summer's hurricanes destroyed an estimated 70 percent of eagle nests in the stricken areas, White expected to see a big jump in territorial fights this year. But so far this nesting season, about October to mid May, bald eagles are proving to be resourceful. Many are rebuilding in the nest tree if enough of it still stands. Or they are nesting elsewhere in their territory, though many of the tall pine trees they favor are down, White said.

White would like to see more developers set aside eagle preserves, possibly charging a little more for the lots nearby, when an eagle nest is on the property.

"Make it a park, set aside a conservation area," she said. "People do love to live near these birds because they are wonderful to watch."

In East Lake, a bald eagle pair has rebuilt a nest that they lost last year in the Grey Oaks subdivision.

"I call them Roy and Royola," said Grey Oaks developer Roy E. Shaffer Jr., who set aside a preserve around the nest. He believes one eaglet is male and the other female. "It's been thrilling, and they're doing great."

A bald eagle pair once nested in the area of Palm Harbor where the injured male was recently found, Brigham said. The pair was abused and even shot at, she said. They nested in a pine tree on Bee Pond Road and then moved into a tree in the field where Highlands of Innisbrook stands now.

"We think they tried to nest in Camp Wai Lani," she said, "but the ospreys chased them right out."

No one has seen the pair nesting in recent years. Brigham said there's a slim chance that the pair is still there, nesting out of sight. If they have eaglets, they would drive away even their own offspring from past years.

The day after its rescue, a volunteer took the injured eagle to veterinarian Joel Murphy of the Animal & Bird Medical Center in Palm Harbor.

"We get bald eagles in occasionally, but not too often," said Murphy, a board-certified avian specialist.

He said the eagle was lying down, dehydrated and in shock when it was brought in late last month.

"I treated it for lacerations, puncture wounds and septicemia (a blood infection)" he said. "We gave him fluid therapy, antibiotics and intensive care."

It is possible that the eagle was attacked by a bobcat or a coyote as it scavenged on the roadside, but Murphy said the puncture wounds were most likely from the talons of another eagle in a territorial fight.

Murphy's staff kept the eagle quiet, and overnight he relaxed. He was sitting up, breathing normally and looking around alertly.

"I was excited because he was going to be fine," veterinary technician Tobi Leotta said, "and probably just excited anyway to be that close to one - touching it and holding it."

Once stable, the eagle went to Wildlife Rehabilitation and Rescue in Seminole. Vernon Yates said he usually doesn't take care of birds, but the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sent the eagle to him. So Yates fed the eagle for a few days and rubbed antibiotic ointment on its wounds.

When the eagle looked like he was getting antsy, Yates released him in his back yard.

"He wandered around with the deer for a few hours," Yates said.

Then the eagle tried his wings. Yates hasn't seen him since. He hopes he won't return to the area where he was injured.

"He was over there trying to steal somebody's woman or to take the nest," Yates said, "and he just ended up on the losing side."

If you see an injured bald eagle, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission dispatch center at 1-888-404-3922. If you find a bald eagle nest, call Lynda White at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland at (407) 644-0190.

[Last modified March 23, 2005, 00:55:18]