Etiquette for eagle viewing

CELINA - Spotting a majestic bald eagle near the shores of Grand Lake can be an exhilarating experience.

Ohio's bald eagle population has increased dramatically in recent years, with an estimated 910 nesting pairs statewide in 2023, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The absence of foliage makes winter a great time to spot eagles improving their large nests along waterways.

However, people should limit how close they get to the birds of prey that have made the area their home. It is illegal and potentially harmful to disturb bald eagles, which were once on the endangered species list and remain on a list for federal monitoring.

The ODNR recommends onlookers stay at least 100 yards away from bald eagles, according to its website. Disturbing bald eagles at the nest site could lead them to abandon their eggs.

"If you're walking along somewhere and the bird like lands in a tree close to you, then, wow, fantastic, what an opportunity, " said Laura Kearns, a wildlife biologist at the Ohio Division of Wildlife. "It's just good to be respectful of the animal or the bird. If it were me, I would just stop what I was doing and just admire it from whatever place I am."

The closer a person gets to a stationary animal, the more likely it is going to want to move away, she continued.

"Best practice is to try admire it from as far away as possible," Kearns said. "I think that a 100-yard guideline is pretty good for a lot of species. If you happen to be closer than that and the animal comes close to you, then I wouldn't move toward it. I would just admire it unless you feel threatened."

If a wildlife watcher does indeed feel threatened, they should back away slowly from the creature.

Eagles begin to build their nests around October through December, with the eggs being laid around mid-February, according to Marne Titchenell, the wildlife program director at Ohio State University School of Environment and Natural Resources.

"They incubate for about 35 days," she said. "They're usually leaving the nest anywhere between late May and mid-June, sometimes a little bit later or earlier, depending on when they started."

Any kind of disturbance that happens when the birds are incubating or just after the chicks are hatched can flush the bird off of the nest, Kearns said.

"That exposes the eggs or the young chicks to cold temperatures, and that can lead to them perishing because they can't keep themselves warm," Kearns said. "Particularly that period like February, March, early April, when you still have those cold temperatures below freezing, the eggs and the chicks can't thermoregulate. That's a very vulnerable period."

Bald eagles are protected by federal and state law. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act enacted in 1940 prohibits anyone without a permit issued by the Secretary of the Interior from taking bald or golden eagles, including their feathers, nests or eggs, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services website.

"The Act provides criminal penalties for persons who 'take, possess, sell, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, at any time or any manner, any bald eagle ... [or any golden eagle], alive or dead, or any part (including feathers), nest, or egg thereof,'" the website states.

The Act defines take as "pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, molest or disturb," per the website.

The Act also defines disturb as to "agitate or bother a bald or golden eagle to a degree that causes, or is likely to cause, based on the best scientific information available, injury to an eagle; a decrease in its productivity, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior; or nest abandonment, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior."

The birds are also protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, passed in 1918, which prohibits the taking (including killing, capturing, selling, trading and transport) of protected migratory bird species without prior authorization by the Department of Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, per the department website.

There are more than 1,000 birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in addition to bald and golden eagles, including the Pied-billed Grebe, Snow Goose and Long-billed Curlew.

Kearns said the best way to get a good glimpse at a bald eagle while maintaining sufficient distance is to use binoculars.

They're actually one of the easier bird species to spot, she said.

"Given their kind of distinctive plumage, their large body size, you're more likely to see them around large bodies of water, like Grand Lake St. Marys, or large river corridors," she said. "They like to perch in the trees along rivers, so those are areas where you're more likely to see an eagle. The nice thing about them is that they're fairly large, pretty easy to see with the naked eye. You don't need any specific types of binoculars or scopes, but if you do have binoculars, that's probably one of the easiest ways to really admire them."