How To Draw An Eagle Looking Through A Telescope
Trilobites
If Rover Tin can Make It Hither, Perhaps Bald Eagles Can Get in Anywhere
A white-headed raptor has been preying on smaller birds in Central Park. It's come a long way since conservationists affixed aluminum bands to its legs iv years ago.
Visitors to Cardinal Park'due south reservoir in New York are taking in a drama filled with feathers. Its star performer, thrilling parkgoers and terrorizing gulls, is Rover, a baldheaded eagle.
The city's birders have been tracking Rover for two years, and some indicate to his ongoing story as demonstrating the conservation benefits of attaching aluminum bands to the legs of threatened bird species when they are young. Rover'south arrival in the 5 boroughs too adds to mounting evidence of a render to urban areas by birds of prey. If Rover tin make a abode in and around Central Park, perhaps fifty-fifty more than eagles volition fill the city'south skies in the years alee.
Rover's story begins in New Haven, Conn. In 2022, the town'southward birders were surprised to encounter a pair of bald eagles set up a nest near a busy intersection. The male wore a band effectually his leg reading "P2," while the female was unbanded. Birders christened the pair Walter and Rachel — Westward and R later the Westward River, which flows through the metropolis, said Martin Torresquintero, the outdoor run a risk coordinator for the city's government.
Walter and Rachel failed to raise any young that year and then relocated to a nearby cemetery. They succeeded the adjacent yr, and again in 2022 when they laid three eggs.
Biologists with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection monitored the nest until the eggs hatched. On May xi, 2022, Brian Hess, a state wildlife biologist, rode a New Haven city ruby-red picker up to the nest and removed the chicks. He weighed and measured them, placed a metal ring around each of their legs, and returned them. I ring contained a long number assigned by the The states Geological Survey'due south Bird Banding Laboratory, while the other independent two large characters visible through spotting telescopes or zoom lenses. The female person sibling's band read P7, while one male's read R7 and the other, S7.
Ii years later, a immature baldheaded eagle began keeping vigil in the tall pine trees of Brooklyn'southward Green-Wood Cemetery. "I couldn't believe that a bald eagle was hanging out at Greenish-Wood Cemetery in the middle of Brooklyn," said Angela Panetta, a birder in the borough who said the eagle got her interested in birding.
Birders in Green-Wood caught sight of a band effectually his left leg, R over vii — earning him the nickname Rover, and they've been tracking him ever since.
Then, just a few weeks ago, a banded bald eagle dramatically appeared in Central Park, perching low over the reservoir and snatching a gull out of the air in forepart of onlookers.
Mr. Hess had seen a video of the Central Park bald hawkeye on the hunt. "I idea, wow, that's the coolest thing," he said. Soon after, he was contacted with a report that a bald eagle with the black ring reading R7 had been hanging around New York City. He recognized the combination instantly — it was one of the siblings he'd banded in 2022.
Rover represents part of an ongoing trend of birds of casualty moving into urban areas. Raptor populations plummeted in the start half of the 20th century considering of widespread hunting and utilize of the insecticide DDT. These chemicals traveled upwardly the food web and accumulated in predators such as baldheaded eagles, making their eggs' shells too thin to support the parent'southward weight, said Jen Cruz, a population ecologist at Boise State Academy.
Bans on DDT, too every bit laws forbidding harming or agonizing baldheaded eagles, have led to the species' recovery. The U.Southward. bald hawkeye population has quadrupled since 2009, and these large, white-headed raptors are at present a regular sight even in New York Urban center; bald eagles breed on Staten Island, for example. The birds are adjustable, and can feed on fish, roadkill, other birds and more — even in Central Park.
"I've been birding Central Park now for at least v years," said Ursula Mitra of Manhattan. "And frankly I take never seen an eagle hunting on the reservoir except for the past four or five weeks."
Birds of casualty withal face threats in New York City. Just last year, Central Park's celebrity barred owl Barry died after colliding with a maintenance vehicle. An autopsy found that she had eaten poisoned casualty.
Rover's family has endured drama, too. In that location have been no reported resightings of P7, and S7 was killed in September 2022 by a truck in West Virginia. Rover'southward female parent, Rachel, was striking past a truck on I-95 in 2022 and survived. But during her rehabilitation, Walter found a new mate who fought off Rachel when she tried to return to him, Mr. Torresquintero said.
Mr. Hess is optimistic about Rover's future. Bald eagles begin breeding effectually 5 years quondam, and Rover is four. Perhaps he will detect a mate and choose to breed in New York Metropolis, too.
"Clearly this bird has figured out how to catch gulls, and probably ducks as well," Mr. Hess said. "They really are smart and adaptable birds who have figured out how to survive in lots of different places."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/science/bald-eagle-central-park-rover.html
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