Bald Eagle Count Finds 12 Eaglets Born in Door County

A dozen eaglets were hatched by their nesting Bald Eagle parents in Door County this spring, according to Steve Easterly, an Oshkosh-based wildlife management specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Photo by Len Villano.

For the past six years Easterly has been doing the annual spring flyover with a DNR pilot to check known Bald Eagle and Osprey nests in the 17-county northeast Wisconsin region, which includes Door County.

“We have all the known nests on GPS, so we know where they are,” Easterly said. “The first flight is pretty straightforward. It’s usually done early to mid April. You fly over the known nests to see if they are occupied or not, and whether the adults are using the nest to lay eggs and raise young. If it is, we call it occupied. For Door County we had 12 occupied nests for the first flight.”

Easterly added that there are 20 known Bald Eagle territories on the peninsula, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that every one of those will be occupied every year.

“A pair will set up a territory in a tree,” he said. “For a variety of reasons, we don’t even speculate as to why, they don’t return or are not able to come back to attempt nesting.”

The incubation period for eagles is about 25 days, so Easterly and the pilot do another flyover about a month after the first one.

“For the second flight we determine if they were successful or not, and then try to get a count of the eaglets they had for that year,” he said. “Nine were found to be successful, producing 12 young. So their success rate was probably 75 percent overall for the Door Peninsula.”

And that, he said, is pretty much the standard in his 17-county territory.

“We found 135 total occupied nests, and 103 successful with a total of 168 young in the 17 counties,” Easterly said. “That comes out to a 76 percent success rate, so that’s right in line with what we found in the peninsula.”

Unfortunately, the Bald Eagle survey ends there.

“We do not do any follow-ups for survival beyond that,” Easterly said. “Our budget is pretty tight. This year we were able to squeeze it out to the do the entire state.”

The tight budget also meant a single flyover for the Osprey count. Ospreys return to the area later than Bald Eagles, so that count is held in May. Easterly said they found nine occupied nests in Door County and 123 in the entire northeast district.

“Due to limited budget, we were only able to do the first flight for Osprey, which means we can tell if they’re occupied or not,” he said.

The DNR has been doing the annual Bald Eagle count longer than any other state. Easterly said in 1973, the count was 108 breeding pairs. Once the final numbers are in for the entire state, the Bald Eagle numbers are expected to be higher than the record 1,337 pairs counted last year.

The Bald Eagle was removed from Wisconsin’s endangered species list in 1997 and taken off the federal list in 2007, but they remain heavily protected. It’s against the law to kill or possess a bald eagle, its nest, eggs or feathers.

As budgets remain tight, Easterly said there is a way for the public to help sustain the annual Bald Eagle survey through the Adopt an Eagle Nest program. For a minimum contribution of $100 you will receive:

• An adoption certificate with the name of your choice, certifying that you have adopted an eagle nest in the state of Wisconsin.

• An educational pamphlet about eagles, including identification, diet, breeding, and their history in Wisconsin.

• An activity/information booklet about eagles and a full-color eagle calendar.

• An extra surprise (in the past, this has included a full-color “Eagle for Kids” booklet).

To sign up, enclose a check made out to Endangered Resources Fund – Eagle Nests. Minimum contribution is $100. Include the address of the recipient and the name and address of the donor (if they are different). Send donations to:  Adopt an Eagle Nest Program, Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of Endangered Resources, PO Box 7921, Madison WI 53707-7921.