{"id":39979,"date":"2022-06-16T19:21:52","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T01:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/if-a-colorado-eagle-nest-falls-in-the-forest-and-the-cameras-are-on-should-anyone-save-it\/"},"modified":"2022-06-17T01:21:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T01:21:52","slug":"if-a-colorado-eagle-nest-falls-in-the-forest-and-the-cameras-are-on-should-anyone-save-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/if-a-colorado-eagle-nest-falls-in-the-forest-and-the-cameras-are-on-should-anyone-save-it\/","title":{"rendered":"If a Colorado eagle nest falls in the forest \u2013 and the cameras are on \u2013 should anyone save it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A bald eagle feeds on a dead fish at Stearns Lake on April 27 in Boulder County. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FORT COLLINS \u2014 When an aging cottonwood hosting an active eagle nest at Barr Lake State Park blew over and sank into the depths, raptor fans were sad and families sent hand-drawn sympathy cards to the park office.<\/p>\n

But state biologists stuck to their carefully considered response: \u201cBetter luck next time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Near Longmont a few years ago, a mama eagle was electrocuted by a power line, one of the hatchlings fell out of the nest, and then a rattlesnake came along and punctured the fallen eaglet\u2019s talon. Dropped at a raptor rescue for intensive care, the baby bird made it and was released, healed talon and all.<\/p>\n

And when fans of a Stearns Lake nest worried the leaning tree would fall over onto Boulder County Open Space, they offered to pay to prop up the branches. The county\u2019s reaction? \u201cThat\u2019s not what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

As raptors from eagles to ospreys to great horned owls make a strong comeback in spite of relentless urban growth on the Front Range, wildlife biologists acknowledge that a live-cam-loving public gets confused.<\/p>\n

When do we intervene to save wild animals, and when is nature the better judge?<\/p>\n

Do we keep building artificial nests? Shore up ancient cottonwoods? Close more trails in nesting season? Pick up every fallen chick? Spend a week dunking eagles in warm baths to loosen cement?<\/p>\n

And how to teach webcam watchers that a remote nest show is not meant to play like \u201cDaddy Day Care,\u201d but \u201cSurvivor\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing we do is try to talk people down off the ledge, because they\u2019re emotionally involved. They want to help,\u201d said Mike Tincher, rehabilitation coordinator at the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program in Fort Collins. \u201cIt\u2019s up to us to articulate, and take the emotion out of it the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet Tincher has found himself chasing an ailing golden eagle up and down a rain-soaked slag pile at a cement plant, the bird\u2019s wings increasingly coated in concrete and Tincher increasingly exhausted. He notes a distinction between human-caused animal disasters, like a cement pile in a raptor breeding ground, and natural causes like windstorms or drought. But he agrees the lines can be invisible to many.<\/p>\n

Colorado State University veterinarian Miranda Sadar was once caught up in a Virginia debate over an eagle nest on a popular webcam, when the mama died and Daddy Bird had three starving eaglets to manage. A web of wildlife agencies considered the full range of possible reactions, from doing nothing to dangling fish popsicles over the nest that would drop morsels at regular intervals of melting. (They ended up taking the eaglets to a rehab center \u2013 but only after sorting the risk that the babies would see humans coming, jump in a panic, and injure themselves.)<\/p>\n

Official reactions are often complicated by contact with citizens whose enthusiasm for wildlife can be undermined by inconvenient facts.<\/p>\n

In her experience, Sadar said, an extremely common call to biologists and rescue centers goes like this:<\/p>\n

We know this is a baby bald eagle.<\/em><\/p>\n

Can you send a picture?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThey send a picture. And it\u2019s a pigeon.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can build the nest, but you can\u2019t make them stay<\/div>\n

In the 1970s, after the pesticide DDT ravaged U.S. bird populations by weakening eggshells, states like Colorado hoped to rebuild to 10 nesting pairs of bald eagles statewide.<\/p>\n

Now, there are more than a dozen active nests in Boulder County alone, wildlife biologists say. Though counts are imprecise and in flux, there are about 300 viable bald eagle nests across Colorado these days, said Michelle Seubert, manager of the popular bird sanctuary Barr Lake State Park.<\/p>\n

Bird observation and conservation groups have speculated for years that burgeoning Front Range suburbs encroaching on wetlands and old cottonwood stands would renew threats to bald eagles and other raptors. But Front Range wildlife biologists say experience shows that with careful trail closures to protect wetland or cliff nesting areas, many raptors seem to thrive while living close to respectful humans.<\/p>\n

\"A
A bald eagle soars over Stearns Lake. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Bald eagles hang out regularly in spaces as busy as Denver\u2019s City and Washington parks, or Memorial Park in Colorado Springs. One wildlife biologist didn\u2019t want her name attached to the observation that eagles in their frequency and eating habits may be more like seagulls than majestic national icons. But you get the idea.<\/p>\n

Seubert and many of her regular walkers are disappointed eaglets will be missing from Barr Lake for the first time since the 1980s. But Seubert pecks through some recent history to explain why one tree falling is not catastrophic.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 1986, we\u2019ve had 61 eaglets fledge from Barr Lake,\u201d she said. The park does build artificial nesting platforms in trees safer than the dead or flirting-with-disaster cottonwoods eagles often prefer. But pairs ready to nest don\u2019t always choose the prefabs.<\/p>\n

\"A
A ferruginous hawk is kept in the nursery and educational area of the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program in Fort Collins. The program rehabilitates around 300 birds a year. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Of
Of the 300 birds rehabilitated at the facility, 78% have treatable cases and can be returned to the wild. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Last year at Barr Lake, a tree with a human-made nest basket fell over. Park workers put it back up in a more viable tree. The local nesting pair ignored it and built in a precarious dead cottonwood. Protective park staff and trail regulars were certain this year\u2019s nest had eggs before an early April windstorm toppled the cottonwood into 6 feet of water, too deep for any evidence to surface.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when biologists urge birders to keep calm and binocular on.<\/p>\n

Even on the built-up Front Range, Seubert said, \u201cnature has a way of taking care of its own. And so just to know that there are plenty of nests, and they\u2019ll rebuild and come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the blowover and egg disaster, one sympathy card included a sticker of Snoopy hugging Charlie Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some people that commented on Facebook, \u2018Well, they need to take all the dead trees out.\u2019 But for the most part, people are just sad,\u201d Seubert said.<\/p>\n

Fake nests OK, but no crutches for a tree<\/div>\n

Some longtime bird observers stay at sad, while others fly beyond, deep into mad. And few even enlist lawyers.<\/p>\n

Front Range Nesting Bald Eagle Studies is an amateur group that puts in serious time observing and defending local birds from perceived threats. At Boulder County\u2019s Stearns Lake, in the Carolyn Holmberg Preserve at Rock Creek Farm, the group and its vocal leader, Dana Bove, wanted much more done to protect a locally famous nesting pair.<\/p>\n

The pair had nested in a precarious tree in 2019 that did indeed topple, with eggs on board. They moved on to another precarious tree, and the watch group started agitating in 2021 for Boulder County to take more action. They wanted nearby farming activity restricted from a larger buffer zone, and offered to pay the costs of propping up the latest nesting tree after any hatchlings were safely gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on our mapping, they are probably in the last viable nest tree in their three-kilometer territory,\u201d Bove said. \u201cThat nest is being supported by at least one small dead limb, and will not likely last much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group, Bove added, \u201cdoes not promote intervention for the most part, but these bald eagles have been intervened with by human disturbance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A red-tailed hawk, kept at the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program in Fort Collins, has lived at the center since 2009 and is often featured for classroom and educational outreach programs. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Last summer, the Boulder County Attorney\u2019s office wrote Bove back, saying county biologists \u201cdo not support artificial interventions, such as installing artificial nests or shoring up nests, believing that eagles know best where to site their nests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado biologists are proud of their eagle record, the letter said. Existing open space agriculture does not appear to be bothering them when trail restrictions are set up properly, \u201cand this year there was an unprecedented (at least in modern times) 29 eaglets that fledged from Boulder County nests,\u201d the attorney\u2019s office wrote.<\/p>\n

Boulder County wildlife biologist Michelle Durant echoed others in arguing that birds, not people, should decide when a tree is no longer safe for a nest. \u201cIt\u2019s always good, we feel, to let the birds select a different tree, and in most cases, we let nature run its course. What we try to do is to give the birds space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo artificial nests\u201d is not an absolute with Boulder County Open Space, Durant added. There have been talks with Colorado Parks and Wildlife about building a platform at Stearns Lake if the right spot becomes clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow there\u2019s no guarantee that the birds are going to accept it. That\u2019s the thing. You know, we\u2019ve done this with ospreys and learned our lesson,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get biologists started on the ospreys<\/div>\n

Ospreys, a more fish-centric raptor than the less finicky eagles, create their own set of mixed blessings for Front Range wildlife biologists.<\/p>\n

Left on their own, the dynamic birds love to build nests in Xcel powerline towers, not realizing the platforms come with the real estate as-is of potential electrocution. Xcel cooperates with open space agencies to build substitute nests \u2013 which of course the ospreys don\u2019t always take.<\/p>\n

A city of Boulder osprey nest cam at Valmont Reservoir is wildly popular, with thousands of views, said ecological stewardship senior manager Heather Swanson. (Boulder County Open Space has another osprey nest cam at the county fairgrounds in Longmont.) Live wildlife images with a compelling backstory are great ways to help the public value habitat and conservation, biologists note.<\/p>\n

But as with all social media and live footage, access makes \u201cexperts\u201d out of a distractingly high number of residents with time on their hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been super windy days where people are concerned that we should go put something up to help block the nest from the wind,\u201d Swanson said. \u201cOr, go put a cover over the nest because it\u2019s going to be hailing or snowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biologists\u2019 response, Swanson said, is \u201cthese are the natural conditions that these birds live in. Our job isn\u2019t to manage that, it\u2019s just to provide them a good place to nest and then let things fall as they may.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will we catch you when you fall? Can we get back to you?<\/div>\n

And fall they do.<\/p>\n

A dazed fledgling hitting the ground before learning to soar is a clich\u00e9 based on eons of reality. While on a hike or while watching the bird cams, some residents see a chick on the ground and simply can\u2019t walk away.<\/p>\n

Take young kestrels, said the rehab center\u2019s Tincher. They are cliff dwellers, and after hatching and growing, they don\u2019t use a series of high branches to fledge away from human sight as eagle chicks might.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they\u2019re too big, they just bail on the ground, and then maybe bump around, climb up on bushes, and stuff like that. That\u2019s normal,\u201d Tincher said. But those facts are unknown to kestrel newcomers who come upon what they perceive to be an awkward, dangerous scene during a hike.<\/p>\n

\"Great
Great horned owls are kept in the hospital area of the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program in Fort Collins. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A great horned owl is kept in the hospital area. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cPeople will say well, there\u2019s cats and coyotes! Well, there\u2019s cats and coyotes everywhere,\u201d Tincher said. \u201cWe have to look at immediate danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where ubiquitous cellphones and sharing technology can be an advantage for rescuers, he added. Rehab centers used to waste untold time going out on calls, unable to assess the situation from a voice call. Now, they get pictures.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast night I got three calls about young great horned owls,\u201d Tincher said. \u201cAll three pictures showed three youngsters doing what they do. So we play wait and see. We have triage by picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

From soaring updraft to a more level flight?<\/div>\n

The public\u2019s \u2013 and the biologists\u2019 \u2013 affinity for intervention does vary by species, though some are reluctant to spell it out. They\u2019re not building artificial platforms for seagulls, for example.<\/p>\n

On the interventionist side, few efforts match the dedication and ingenuity of California in pulling back the condor from the brink of extinction. Breeders took away the first egg of the season and raised the hatchling with hand puppets, knowing the double-clutching parent condors would then lay and hatch another that year.<\/p>\n

Colorado biologists and amateur watchers worry that a few years of bad luck, from high winds or avian flu, could crack recent success with eagles. Bove\u2019s group continues to push hard against allowing oil and gas development and new homebuilding in established raptor hunting grounds.<\/p>\n

But if the positive trends continue, biologists also say they are starting to see a time when eagle growth will level off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a limit, there\u2019s going to be a carrying capacity,\u201d Boulder County\u2019s Durant said. \u201cI\u2019m just not sure when that\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

An early sign of that, she added, would be eagle nests that no longer produce two or three viable chicks. In relatively dry climates without as many fish or other wildlife, eagles need broad hunting areas to accumulate the prairie dogs, trout, frogs and other food their babies need.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre they only able to successfully rear one chick because of limited resources?\u201d Durant said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not sure,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why we do long-term monitoring. So maybe we can extrapolate some meaning from this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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