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Where have all the
eagles gone?

By MARY GREENE

REGION — After the big rains that poured over the region late in the year, eagles were not sighted on the Big Eddy, although the birds had been common there during the short cold days of December. The Big Eddy is a wide stretch of the Delaware that runs alongside the town of Narrowsburg, harboring the deepest hole in the upper section of the river, just south of the Narrowsburg bridge. Eagles, as many as eight or 10 at a time, fished the open water of the Big Eddy from the edge of the ice.

But “they’re around,” said Lori McKean, director of The Eagle Institute, “just not concentrated in the areas where we are used to seeing them.

“The Narrowsburg pool [of eagles] is down,” she said. “But this is a natural occurrence. The water was frozen there, but when the rain came, it opened up rather quickly. Then it began freezing again. There were too many changes too fast, the water was too fast, the fish just weren’t there. So the eagles moved on.”

Peter Nye of the New York State Department of Conservation (DEC) concurred. “Last year, and this year too, there were large numbers of eagles along the Big Eddy. I think this December there were as many as 40, feeding on shad and other fish running there. But they just suddenly dispersed.”

On January 11, Nye conducted the DEC’s annual eagle count over the entire southeast New York region, including the Delaware River, the Hudson River and tributaries. The rough count shows some “interesting changes,” said Nye. Eagles counted on the main stem of the Delaware from Port Jervis to Hancock numbered 27, compared to the 147 counted last year. Of these 27, 17 were adults and 10 were immature males.

Numbers for the entire southeast New York region decreased slightly, from 238 in 2000 to 220 in 2001.

“There is a lot of ice along the whole Delaware,” said Nye, which could account for the redistribution of eagles.

McKean said eagles have been congregating over slower water, such as at Pond Eddy and the Lackawaxen Pool. They are also at Minisink Ford.

“Sometimes, like at the Big Eddy, eagles may congregate on ice at the edge of open water. But in other areas, such as Pond Eddy, which has a tree line of beautiful sycamores and pines, the eagles congregate in the trees to fish.”

McKean also said, “One of the services The Eagle Institute can provide is to direct visitors to the high-viewing spots on any given day.”

A few eagles have returned to The Big Eddy and have been sighted flying over the river. Last Friday, a mob of crows on the Plank Road in Pennsylvania, just above the Narrowsburg bridge, was observed chasing an eagle out of the treetops and back to the river.

The DEC has conducted its annual eagle count since 1979, and Nye has been doing it since 1976. To view annual eagle counts, readers can visit the DEC website, Endangered Species page, at www.dec.state.ny.us. For information on where and how to observe eagles along the Upper Delaware and Hudson Rivers, contact The Eagle Institute at 845/557-6162.