EAGLE SCOUTS

RAPTORS PUT ON SEASONAL SHOW AT BEAVER LAKE

Beaver Lake is the winter home to about 300 bald eagles, such as this one seen soaring near Lost Bridge North park on Friday. Rangers with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did their annual count of bald eagles on Friday and Tuesday. The Beaver Lake count is part of a national count kept by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Beaver Lake is the winter home to about 300 bald eagles, such as this one seen soaring near Lost Bridge North park on Friday. Rangers with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did their annual count of bald eagles on Friday and Tuesday. The Beaver Lake count is part of a national count kept by the U.S. Geological Survey.

— Warm, inviting water brings visitors to Beaver Lake during the summer.

In the winter, bald eagles are the stars of the cold-weather show, wowing bundled-up boaters and shoreline hikers.

If there was an election for the most majestic of birds, the bald eagle might win in a landslide.

Each January, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers takes an annual count of the bald eagles at Beaver Lake.

The total becomes part of a national database of eagle information that is kept by the U.S. Geological Survey, said Alan Bland, a corps park ranger at Beaver Lake.

Counting takes place at Beaver Lake over two days. Rangers count eagles on the north end of the lake one day and the south end another day.

On Friday morning, Bland and Ranger Donna Bryant pulled on parkas and gloves to count eagles from the Arkansas 12 bridge to Beaver Dam. On Tuesday, rangers Jeremy Clemence, Dylan Edwards and Ryan King cruised from the bridge south.

The count totaled 175 bald eagles.

On Friday, Bland and Bryant tallied 136 eagles - 121 adults and 15 juveniles. Tuesday’s count was 39 bald eagles - 32 adults and seven juveniles.

That’s an average number, Bland said. There’s much more water and shoreline on the north end of the lake, so the count is naturally higher on that end.

Rangers have been counting eagles at Beaver Lake since the 1980s, when the raptors were an endangered species. Bald eagles are no longer endangered, so why count them?

“If you don’t keep a count you can’t see any trends,” Bland said. “If their numbers drop, it gives biologists a heads up and something can be done.” SOARING HIGH

Before hitting the water on Friday morning, Bland predicted the count would be low. The weather was too nice, clear with a forecast high in the 60s.

“I can guarantee we won’t see many eagles today. It’s a bluebird day and they’ll all be out flying, and why wouldn’t they ?”

Beaver Lake’s eagles seemed bent on proving Bland wrong.

We’d barely cleared the dock when Bland counted eagle No. 1 roosting near the top of a tree on shore.

Three more were seen just beyond that.

Bryant kept a running tab with a pencil and notebook.

Beaver Lake visitors can count on seeing bald eagles each winter.

The birds fly here on great 7-foot wingspans mainly from the Great Lakes region of the U.S. and Canada. These revered migrants begin arriving in September. Their numbers peak in January, which is why the count is held then.

Through mid-February and March, most of Beaver Lake’s eagles return north where they nest and raise young. That is, most of the lake’s eagles.

LAKE HOME

Bald eagles have built three nests on the lake over the years, all on the north end of the reservoir. During Friday’s count, Bland and Bryant took a close look at each nest.

All appeared in good shape and bald eagles were seen close to each nest. Indicators are good that eagles will raise young in all three nests this year, Bland said, as they did last nesting season.

Boaters on the lake who see a bald eagle nest will know it. They’re huge, the size of a pickup-truck’s bed and built of branches and limbs.

The smallest of the three nests is high in a pine tree east of Prairie Creek park.It’s believed to be the fi rst nest on the lake. Other nests are near Beaver Dam, one in a pine and another in a hardwood tree.

Who knows? One or more of the juvenile bald eagles we counted on Friday could have been raised at one of the nests. And we could have missed seeing more of these young eagles.

Bald eagles don’t develop their characteristic white head and white tail feathers until they’re five or six years old. Young bald eagles are a mottled brown and blend in well with the shoreline.

During the all-day count, we kept an sharp eye out for an eagle Bland has affectionately named “Lew,” an eagle with a feather condition called leucism.

This quirk of nature affects feather pigmentation and makes Lew appear white with black splotches, similar to an albino eagle or a juvenile. Lew has been seen at Beaver Lake for about three winters.

Leucism is more common in some birds, but extremely rare among eagles.

To Bland, Lew is among the most unique bald eagles on Earth.

The eagle gave rangers the slip on Friday and wasn’t seen Tuesday either.

Friday’s count turned up bald eagles on the main lake and in coves. On this bluebird day, they were everywhere.

A pod of f ive eagles soared under the wintry blue sky in the Big Clifty arm. The highest number was near Lost Bridge North park where 20 eagles were counted in trees or soaring.

To see these eagles, Bland recommends renting a boat at a marina or heading out in your own vessel. Cruise the north end of the lake to see the most eagles, he advised.

Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area off ers pontoon boat tours to see bald eagles. Call the park oft ce at 479-789-5000 for cruise times and prices.

GO WEST

Beaver Lake isn’t the only feather in Northwest Arkansas’ cap for seeing bald eagles.

Capt. Brian McKinzie, an Arkansas Game & Fish Commission enforcement supervisor, said Spavinaw Creek in west Benton County holds high numbers of eagles.

“You never know how many you’ll see,” he said. “One evening we were there and saw over 200. The next day there were about 60.”

To see them, drive along county roads that run beside Spavinaw Creek.

Swepco Lake near Gentry is home to dozens of bald eagles during winter, McKinzie confirmed. One way to see them is to hike the one-half mile Eagle Watch Nature Trail that leads to a viewing pavilion on the lake shore.

Park at the trailhead on Arkansas 12 about two miles west of Gentry. The pavilion is at the end of the trail.

McKinzie said visitors have seen anywhere from 25 to 70 bald eagles from the pavilion.

An outing to see bald eagles by day could be the elixir that keeps January’s cabin fever at bay.

Outdoor, Pages 5 on 01/17/2013

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