A pair of bald eagles picked possibly the best spot — for bird watchers, at least — to build a nest in North Park.
The couple this year settled down within sight of the park’s North Dakota Pavilion and Rachel Carson Trail at the intersection of Pearce Mill and Brown roads.
At a naming ceremony Monday, between the park’s ice skating rink and the Latodami Nature Center, county Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Allegheny County Councilwoman Cindy Kirk, R-District 2, officially renamed the area the Eagle’s Nest Shelter and Grove.
The stars of the show, the young eagle pair that built the nest, did not attend. In what is believed to be their first attempt at nesting and mating, they did not produce eggs in 2019. Eagles mate for life. They were recently seen in the area but, as expected, do not routinely roost in the nesting tree at this time of year. At Pittsburgh’s latitude, bald eagles generally return to their nests in late December and begin coupling rituals that lead to reinforcing the nest and mating. Sometimes they move to a new location nearby and build a new nest.
The unveiling of a new shelter sign today quickly followed legislation introduced by Ms. Kirk and unanimously approved by Allegheny County Council last week. The naming event was attended by an independent group of eagle watchers who first noticed the birds’ frequent flights over North Park Lake in 2018. They helped to document the nest’s location, across a wetland and North Fork Pine Creek relative to the shelter parking lot.
Vehicle parking is not permitted near the nest on Kummer Road, and during the nesting season Rachel Carson Trail hikers are asked to walk through without stopping to avoid disturbing the birds.
Amie Downs, county spokeswoman, said there is no intention to install an internet camera to monitor the nest.
About 15 miles southeast of North Park in Harmar, the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania had a popular live-streaming video camera focused on another bald eagle nest from 2015-18. Early this year those eagles moved their nest overlooking the Allegheny River about 100 yards on the same steep escarpment. The new location was not within the camera’s field of view preventing a live-feed from the Harmar site.
It was announced today there will be no digital peaks inside the nest in 2020.
“Audubon has made the difficult decision not to attempt to install a streaming cam on the Harmar eagle nest this year,” said spokeswoman Rachel Handel. “The birds' new nest is located in a spot that is extremely steep and dangerous to get to. This decision was made with the safety of Audubon staff, and all those who are instrumental in camera installation, in mind.”
The camera used from 2015-18 is inactive but still in place and pointed at the birds’ former nest. Ms. Handel said that because the location can be safely accessed by workers, the new plan is to encourage a new avian family to move into the eagles’ abandoned nest
“We will be working with our tree climber to place a platform in the crook of the old nest tree in an effort to entice a red-tailed hawk or great horned owl to use it,” she said. “If that's successful, we will live-stream those birds as they nest and raise young.”
Jim Bonner, executive director of the regional Audubon chapter, said a platform made from chicken wire formed into a cone will be positioned at the site of the former nest. The hope is that a new avian couple will build a nest at the spot already covered by the camera.
“Basically, all you are doing is giving [a new nesting pair] a head start,” he said. “Although hawks could certainly do this on their own, they might build theirs outside of the field of view of our camera.
In 2019, the Harmar bald eagles hatched and fledged two offspring off camera. They stole the nest In 2014 by violently evicting a nesting pair of red-tailed hawks that had been using the site for several years. Dramatic eagle-hawk dogfights over the Allegheny were watched by fascinated onlookers.
It is not uncommon for a monogamous eagle pair to relocate their nest, said Mr. Bonner, but sometimes they merely refurbish, weaving in branches and adding soft materials to nests that can eventually weigh as much as a ton.
In Pittsburgh’s Hays neighborhood, where another bald eagle pair has fledged 10 eaglets since 2019, a state Game Commission permitting process is underway which would permit a live-streaming camera to begin operation again in 2020.
By John Hayes: 412-263-1991, jhayes@post-gazette.com.
First Published: October 29, 2019, 8:06 p.m.