BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – It bills itself as a chance to watch a bald eagle family grow.
The effort monitors the birds until they leave the nest. The program is growing and looking for volunteers.
Just off an Interstate 41 frontage road in the village of Howard, a bald eagle nest sits near the top of a sturdy pine.
“That tree’s in the middle of an open area, and that nest is absolutely huge. The nest, just looking at, is probably 7-10 feet deep, and also probably just that far across as well. So, it’s a very impressive nest, and very easy to see when driving by,” said Logan Lasee, Bald Eagle Nest Watch Program Coordinator.
Lasee says the site is part of the Bald Eagle Nest Watch. He says the season in Northeast Wisconsin typically begins in mid-February, and runs until the young are able to fly. Lasee says the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance, formerly Madison Audubon, runs the citizen-science project.
“Once a week, they spend about one or two hours with that nest. And they’re watching for behaviors from the bald eagles visiting the nest. They’re looking for how they’re doing. They’re trying to see if they’re doing anything like incubating an egg. Has an egg hatched? Do they see young in the nest?” he asked.
Fewer than 10 miles away, at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, eagles built a nest near a lagoon a few years ago. Animal Curator Lori Bankson says tracking trends in the eagle abundance is vital.
“We know that eagles had a really hard time, really got down in population, but now to see how they’re reacting. Our environment’s changing a lot. And to see how, with their numbers going up, with young in the nest, how are they spreading out? How are their territories changing?” she asked.
And in De Pere, the Brown County Fairgrounds is home to another nest. Logan Lasee says the popular site is also a story of success.
“Last year, unfortunately, that nest fell apart. But really cool. We’ve actually been seeing the eagles are back and they’re fixing that nest. They’re putting it back together. It’s just one of those stories where we get to see how these animals take something like a nest failure, and they rebound. They come back. They build. And hopefully we’ll be seeing some more eaglets in that nest,” he said.
Sign-up for Bald Eagle Nest Watch program volunteers begins Dec. 1.
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