Hopes for a record nesting season take flight

(derrick z. jackson/Globe staff)

CHRIS MARTIN called after hearing a report on three bald eagles, two of them of breeding age, along the Ashuelot River north of Keene. The area had no known nests. Martin, a New Hampshire Audubon senior biologist, planned to investigate.

"There's so much we don't know at this time," Martin said. "Last year, we had a report that came in a month after now of an additional eagle territory on Lake Winnipesaukee. It wasn't confirmed until July. The nest was skimpy. But this year, the nest was much more substantial. The eagles were out there building while ice was still covering the water. Eagles have been seen bringing fish into the nest.

"That's a good sign they're feeding chicks but we have to be patient. It takes about a month before we see any heads pop up."

In Bremen, Maine, Steve Kress, director of the National Audubon Society's Seabird Restoration Program, geared up for an earlier-than usual start to his 35-year-old project of restoring puffins and terns to Maine islands where they were exterminated in the 1880s.

Last year, a gang of Great Black-backed and Herring gulls destroyed 1,000 tern nests on Seal Island. He was preparing a team to get out to the island 10 days ahead of schedule to keep gulls away from the terns.

"It was the most brazen attack we've seen yet," Kress said. "We can't let our guard down."

Both Kress and Martin have serious hopes that their vigilance will pay off in another record year for Maine puffins and New Hampshire eagles. In 2007, the puffin colonies on Seal Island and Eastern Egg Rock reached 322 and 90 nesting pairs, respectively. In New Hampshire, the number of territorial eagle pairs increased to a record 15 pairs last year, up from 12 in 2006.

The number of young eagles that fledged was only 12 in 2007, nowhere near the record 21 of 2006. That was most likely because of spring snowstorms and northeasters that pummeled the chicks.

This year's relatively calm and mild spring has Martin crossing his fingers. In the winter, a record 67 eagles were sighted. In the winter of 1982, only two were sighted.

Martin said there is no specific connection between winter eagles, which come down to New Hampshire from all over northern New England and eastern Canada, and the ones in the 15 nests. But their numbers do represent the general recovery in the post-DDT era from 417 nesting pairs in 1963 in the 48 contiguous states to 10,000 pairs today.

No one needs to go to Alaska anymore to see scores of eagles in one spot.

The rivers of the Midwest, particularly the Mississippi at dams where churning water stays open for eagles to pluck fish from, today explode with eagles in the winter. Both the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Audubon Society counted over 4,000 wintering eagles in January. That compares to an Iowa count of 642 in 1991. On one of those January days, I counted 50 eagles roosting in trees on the Illinois side.

It all adds up to Martin saying, "It bodes well for a highly productive season. There's way too much good stuff going on right now to keep track of it all."

Somewhat ironically, Kress is hoping to track one of the great mysteries of puffins - where they go for the winter. They are periodically spotted way out in the north Atlantic, but not in their thick clusters on the islands. Kress hopes to put geolocators on up to four of the birds to get a fix on their latitude and longitudes.

He also is trying new tricks to scare gulls away from tern and puffin chicks. The ornithology professor at Cornell, with the help of middle schoolers in Ithaca, N.Y., is going to test a robotic mannikin "scaregull" that pops up and down.

"I'm optimistic," Kress said. "Puffins love to nest near each other, and we've seen the population (on Eastern Egg) increase annually by five to 10 pairs. We're on track for another record - if we can keep track of it all."

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.