A network of volunteers and landowners around the eastern end of Lake Ontario and the adjacent upper St. Lawrence River is waiting expectantly to see if bald eagles begin nesting in their area.
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| Adult bald eagle. Photo: MNR |
Eight platforms constructed in designated ideal sites are part of a program to find, improve and protect suitable nesting habitat for bald eagles in the region. It began with a study in 2004 that used satellite telemetry to assess bald eagle health, nesting success and movements. Nesting bald eagles favour mature forests near coastal marshes or open water away from roads and settlements, so biologists created geographic information systems (GIS) maps that combined information about forest cover and shoreline locations. Using these maps and some old-fashioned legwork, researchers identified 43 prime nesting areas along the shoreline of Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence River, 24 in Ontario and 19 in New York State.
Biologists worked with landowners and partners to build and monitor the eight nesting platforms. They plan to study the effects of contaminants on eagle reproduction by monitoring nesting success and taking tissue samples from young nesting eaglets. Biologists will attach satellite transmitters to nestlings to be able to track their movements the following year.
While most bald eagle nests are monitored on the ground by volunteers, special aerial surveys are occasionally conducted by airplane to assess nests that are difficult to view from the ground.
Click here to view a map of the project area
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An Eagle Eye on the Environment
• The bald eagle is an important indicator species. Because it lives long and is at the top of the aquatic ecosystem food chain, it has the greatest exposure to toxins, such as DDT and PCBs. Healthy bald eagle populations signal healthy ecosystems.
• Sadly, the bald eagle nearly disappeared from the lower Great Lakes region in the first part of the 20th century, largely due to loss of nesting habitat, persecution and exposure to pesticides.
• Today, these large predatory birds are making an impressive comeback in their traditional nesting areas in Great Lakes, save for the Lake Ontario basin. The bald eagle is still listed as provincially endangered in southern Ontario.
Project Partners and Sponsors
- Bird Studies Canada
- Mountain Equipment Co-op
- New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
- Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
- Ontario Power Generation
- Parks Canada
- Shell Environmental Fund
- Toronto Dominion Friends of the Environment Foundation
- United States Environmental Protection Agency
For more information, contact:
- Alastair Mathers, Lake Ontario Basin Canada-Ontario Agreement Coordinator, Lake Ontario Management Unit, Ministry of Natural Resources, Picton (613) 476-8733
- Monique Charette, Management Biologist, Ministry of Natural Resources, Kingston (613) 531-5715