Resurgent bald eagles spotted in Derry, Unity townships

Add Keystone State Park to the sites in Southwestern Pennsylvania occupied by the resurgent bald eagle.

Park naturalist Jean H. Keene has seen two eagles in the Derry Township park since last year and recently led a group of 11 registered participants on a paddling excursion on the park’s central lake to look for eagles and other birds.

Keene reports seeing what appears to be a juvenile female emerging from the woods this past spring near the park’s Kell Visitor Center. Since Memorial Day, an eagle has appeared a few times hunting over the lake.

“I believe she is female because she is very large,” Keene said. “In the raptor family, the females tend to be larger than the males. I know she’s a juvenile because she is all brown, and bald eagles remain brown in color until they reach maturity, at about 4-5 years.”

The park’s second known eagle is believed to be a male and has been spotted perching occasionally in tall trees by a wetlands area.

Keene works seasonally at the park, from March through December. Though she hasn’t seen the eagles on her winter visits to the park, she isn’t sure if they are migratory or year-round residents.

“Keystone Lake is stocked with trout and also contains populations of other types of fish such as bass, tiger muskellunge and catfish, making it an ideal hunting ground for them as well as other types of piscivores (fish-eaters), such as ospreys,” she said.

Keene believes the eagles may be “spooked” by increased attendance at the park following Memorial Day, making them less likely to show themselves.

“The best time to spot as much bird diversity as possible in the park, including the eagles, is first thing in the morning before large groups of people start coming to the park,” she said.

In recent years, bald eagles have been documented near the Loyalhanna Dam in nearby Loyalhanna Township. They’ve been known to frequent the dam outflow in mid-winter, taking advantage of plentiful prey such as gizzard shad.

‘Exciting to see’

Birders Tom and Janet Kuehl of Murrysville have spotted eagles at multiple locations in Westmoreland County, including Loyalhanna Dam, Keystone State Park and Saint Vincent Lake in Unity, next to the local college campus. They log their sightings of wild bird species on eBird.org, an online database managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Tom also compiles bird sightings in the county for the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology. He said he’s noticed a continued uptick in bald eagle sightings in Westmoreland over the past half dozen years. “It keeps building and building,” he said.

According to the pair, eagle nests have been reported on private property along the Route 30 corridor west of Ligonier and near Beaver Run Reservoir — where “you’re not allowed access, but you will see them flying around there,” Janet said.

On a March 4 birding excursion, they counted three immature bald eagles at Saint Vincent Lake and two at Keystone Lake. Another observer, with an eBird posting, reported one eagle soaring before it perched on a tree near the Unity lake on May 2.

“People always want to talk about bald eagles even if they’re not birders,” Janet said. “They are extremely exciting to see.”

James Kellam, an associate professor of biology who teaches ornithology at Saint Vincent College, saw an immature bald eagle — lacking the distinctive white head plumage — while leading students on bird hikes around the neighboring lake in April and May. He said another member of the college community reported seeing a mature eagle at the lake.

Kellam expressed doubt that eagles are nesting in the vicinity of Saint Vincent Lake and suggested those seen there may be passing through or visiting from other nearby habitats in the Loyalhanna watershed.

“The lake itself is too small to support a bald eagle family,” he said.

3 to 300

The bald eagle’s successful return to the region has been credited in large part to cleaner water and a Pennsylvania Game Commission reintroduction program. There were just three known nesting pairs in the state in 1980, rebounding to slightly more than 300 nests in 2015 — the last year the Game Commission tracked them.

At that point, the eagles’ growing presence in Pennsylvania made it difficult to maintain an accurate nest count, according to Game Commission spokesman Travis Lau.

“They continue to turn up in new nesting locations every year,” Lau said. “They’re one of those wildlife species that gets people really excited.”

Although no longer listed as an endangered or threatened species, the bald eagle is protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Protection Treaty Act.

WELL-KNOWN NEIGHBORS

In Allegheny County, a pair of eagles in Harmar have hatched nine offspring since they began nesting on a bluff above Route 28 and the Allegheny River in 2014. The pair’s latest two eaglets made their first trial flights from the nest June 22.

The eagles are expected to remain in that location at least through late July while the young birds perfect their flight skills and learn to hunt.

Another eagle family has attracted much attention in Pittsburgh’s Hays neighborhood, where one of two eaglets recently tangled with a red-tailed hawk. A webcam that captures activity at the Hays eagle nest can be accessed through CSE Corp. and the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.

A pair of bald eagles in Allegheny County’s North Park didn’t produce any offspring this year, officials said. The birds are the topic of a Facebook group, North Park Bald Eagles.