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EAGLES FLY HIGH
July 7th, 2007
by: SUSAN LOYER
Home News Tribune Online
Sightings increase in Middlesex County
MIDDLESEX COUNTY — Spotting a bald eagle soaring across the Central Jersey sky may no longer be such a rarity.
The long endangered, majestic bird with its 7-foot wingspan and striking white head, has been sighted in various communities including Highland Park, Piscataway, New Brunswick and East Brunswick, Milltown, Sayreville and South River, according to a report released Thursday by the the Edison Wetlands Association and the Highland Park Environmental Commission.
“It’s very inspiring,” said David Wheeler, director of operations at the wetlands association, a grass-roots nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment. “To see these birds return to such a small, densely populated, highly developed area is remarkable.”
Since 2000 there have been at least 50 sightings in Middlesex County,” Wheeler said.
Most of the sightings, he said, were in the Raritan River areas of Donaldson and Johnson parks, he said.
But new sightings are being reported.
The Highland Park Meadows in Highland Park, a heavily wooded area on the border of Edison, is a great habitat for the eagle, Wheeler said.
“There’s not a lot of human interference there, and there are a lot of high trees where they can perch and watch over the river,” he said.
The most unlikely spots of recent sightings are the landfills.
“The landfills, for unexpected reasons, make sense,” he said. “Edgeboro and the IRL in Edison are situated on the Raritan River. In many places, large parts of the landfills have ecologically recovered over the decades, and that’s why we’re seeing a wide variety of birds, including the bald eagle, and other wildlife returning to these areas. They’re also far enough away from humans.”
At the IRL, the bald eagle uses the electrical towers to perch, he said.
“They have a perfect vantage point to look over the entire lower Raritan,” he said.
The increase in sightings is a good sign, said Wheeler.
“The report shows that although we caused some problems with nature we’re doing the right thing to make improvement in fixing the problem,” he said. “It shows that the Raritan River, where most of the sightings have taken place, has made a remarkable come back as far as the river’s health is concerned. By no means has it fully recovered, but it has recovered enough that the healthy fish population has brought back birds, like the osprey and bald eagle. From what we are seeing, we can expect an increase in sightings in the years to come.”
The forests and open space areas along the river also provide a good habitat for the eagle, he said.
“It’s really exciting,” said David Moskowitz of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission. “There have been enough sightings in the Central New Jersey area that there could be a bald eagle’s nest that hasn’t been discovered yet. It’s certainly worthwhile for people to keep their eyes open and report any bald eagle sightings.”
The bald eagle, chosen as a national symbol in 1782, once dominated the skies across America. But the loss of its habitat, the effects of being over hunted and its exposure to a toxic pesticide took a toll on the nation’s symbol of independence and freedom.
The pesticide “DDT got into the systems of the fish and smaller animals that the eagles and falcons would eat,” Wheeler said. “DDT weakened the egg shells of the top birds in the food chain. They couldn’t breed properly.”
Although DDT was banned in the 1970s, the bald eagle’s recovery has been slow.
In the 1980s, there was only one active bald eagle nest in New Jersey, and it was located in the southern part of the state, Wheeler said.
Biologists in the state brought in young eagle chicks from Canada and, after raising them in captivity, released them into the wilds, he said.
During the last decade the birds have been making a steady comeback in New Jersey with more than 60 nesting pairs now reportedly living in the state.
Spotting a bald eagle in Central Jersey may still be a bit of a challenge.
“They’re not as predictable as some of the other birds or animals,” he said. “A lot of luck is involved.”
Wheeler said the birds typically make their homes in areas close to a waterway.
“They look for areas where they can fish, and they tend to live in areas as removed as possible from human interference,” he said. “Ideally they live in tall trees, somewhere they can perch and look out over the river as they forage. They’ve been seen in electrical towers, bridges and other man-made structures. They have really adapted well in what has become a completely different environment than 100 years ago.”
The “Bald Eagle Sightings in Middlesex County” report can be found on the Edison Wetland Association’s Web site at www.edisonwetlands.org.
