Patriot's Day storm destroys six nests of eagles on coast

The wind and rain storm that struck the area on Monday, April 16, caused the destruction of the bald eagles' nest built at the end of a pier in Quoddy Village, Eastport, along with five other nests in the state.
Property owner Richard Clark says he can't tell if the nest blew off or the platform beneath it gave way, but he is sure that there had been eaglets in the nest. "She laid her eggs early. She was sitting in February, so I'm pretty sure they had hatched."
Dennis Turner of Perry says he's gotten photos of the former nesting site, and it appears that the 6' x 6' under the platform just fell apart. It sat only about three feet above the high water mark.

Photographer Don Dunbar of Eastport has been taking pictures of the eagle family for the past three years, since the male and female moved from nearby Mathews Island to the end of the deteriorating pier, which was built by Seabees in the 1940s. "I'd stop at the [Welcome to] Eastport sign and look over with binoculars. I think they probably had one or two chicks a week or so ago. I'd sit for a couple of hours and see them bringing in the fish -- eels, alewives, skates, lumpfish, a big bullfrog."

Charlie Todd, a biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, has been studying the state's bald eagle population for 30 years and says this is the only instance he's found of the birds of prey nesting on a pier.

"They originally nested on Mathews Island in a tree, and I was shocked to see a white head and realize where they had moved," recalls Todd of the eagle pair's move in 2005. "They hatched two eaglets in three years on the island, but they hatched four eaglets in 2005 and 2006, so they were doing better in a unique situation. It was novel, and it's nice that the eagles were benefiting from mankind."

Todd notes that the eggs failed to hatch this year for the other Eastport eagle pair, which nests in Shackford Head State Park. "They were incubating eggs earlier, but they just couldn't fight the elements."

The Patriot's Day storm destroyed six bald eagle nests, from Eastport to Bath, and the spring weather was not kind to hatchlings, so 2007 will not be a good year for the state's eagle population. "And it's getting kind of late for them to start breeding again, but I wouldn't rule anything out," says Todd.

Anyone who knows or suspects where an eagle nest is located and/or wants to monitor the birds of prey is urged to contact the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife at 207-287-800.