The bald and the beautiful

By KURT SNYDER
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LAKE MILTON -- Representatives of the Ohio Division of Wildlife gave the public a chance to view a rare sight -- the banding of a bald eaglet.
Jeff Janosik of the wildlife division climbed a beech tree about 65 feet high to retrieve the eaglet Wednesday morning at the eaglet's nest in Portage County, near Lake Milton and the Mahoning County line.
It was then examined on a blanket nearby by management supervisor Dan Kramer in front of about 20 members of the public.
Steve and Diane Gray of Diamond and their 10-year-old twin sons, Shawn and Brent, were among those in attendance. They live near the nest and have watched the eagles for the past three years since Steve Gray helped in its discovery.
A better view
The Grays have watched the eagles from a distance, but the banding was their first chance to see one up close. Gray said the family enjoys watching the eagles now just as much as the first time the eagles were spotted.
"[Shawn and Brent] still get excited every time they see an eagle fly by the house," Gray said.
After making several measurements, Kramer attached two small bands -- one red, the other silver -- to the eaglet just above its talons. The red band can be spotted from afar and contains a number code identifying the date and location of the banding. The silver band has a more complex code to be used if the eaglet is found either injured or dead.
The 8-pound eaglet was then placed back into the nest.
Jeff Herrick, Northeast Ohio district manager for Ohio Division of Natural Resources, said the department now bands a small number of eaglets each spring after the hatching season, which begins in late April.
"It allows us to keep a better track of how fast the population is growing as well as what survival rates are like and how dispersal rates are," Herrick said.
Herrick said only four pairs of bald eagles lived in Ohio in 1978, a year before the banding began.
"Their population had been decimated, mainly due to the use of DDT, which was a pesticide that actually made their egg shells very thin," Herrick said.
Record for Ohio
A record-high 107 pairs now live in Ohio.
To keep up with the status of the bald eagle population, the department is using volunteer eagle watchers like the Grays across the state.
During his observations on the nest, Gray will watch for movement from eaglets and study the behavior of the parents. Occasionally, he said, he will see an eagle bringing back a fish for a meal.
Herrick said the eagles have begun in recent years to change some of their patterns of behavior as the population has grown. Most eagles still live near waterways or in wetlands, but some are now moving closer to the human population.
"This is a bird that used to be very intolerant of humans and any disturbance at all," he said. "As the population has grown and they nest closer and closer to humans, they have become more tolerant."
Herrick said one nest was recently built 75 yards from a residence, and a nest in Wyandot County in western Ohio was built just 4 feet above a lake. Most nests are built at least 30 feet up.
More nest reports
Although the 107 pairs are a record number, that total could be changing in the near future. This week, department officials are checking on the report of a nest in Ashtabula County and are also making helicopter trips across the state to check the status of all 107 nests.
Of the 22 nests in Northeast Ohio, the hatching of 26 babies from 16 nests has been successful, but four nests have been unsuccessful. Officials are still waiting on information on the last two nests.