Day 8: January 8th - Bald eagle Roost Count

Partly sunny, calm, 42 degrees

     What a difference a year makes.  Each year, the Trailside Museum and the League of Naturalists at Bear Mountain and Harriman State Park help the state conduct a three part Bald eagle “Roost Count”.  The idea is that if you know where the eagles which are wintering here in the Hudson Valley will roost for the night, you can get a fairly accurate count of how many eagles are in the area by having volunteers set up to watch these eagles arrive at the various sites and count them.  Since we have a number of roosts covered by different volunteers at the exact same time, you know that the same birds are not being counted twice.  The site to which we have been assigned is known as the “Anchor Monument” near Tompkins Cove, NY. 

Anchor Monument Roost Area     

Bald eagle (archival photo)

     Last year, the weather pattern was just the opposite of this winter.  Last year, there was snow on the ground and ice on the river.  When there is ice on the river, you get eagles visiting this part of the Hudson..  North of us, if the lakes and rivers are frozen over, the eagles have no access to the fish within those waters.  And so, they migrate south to our location where there is easy access to open water and fish.   Last year, an unusually cold and snowy winter, we counted over 60 eagles at our site alone.  

     Fast forward one year.  The winter of 2011-2012 has up to this point in time been inordinately warm with only a couple of days where the temperature has not risen above the freezing point.  If there is unfrozen water on the lakes and streams north of us, the eagles need not make the trip to the Highlands.   They have ample access to food right where they are and are content to remain there.  That is apparently the case this year as evidenced by our latest count at the same roost area…..two birds.  That’s right, over 60 last year and two this year.  The second bird to be counted actually arrived at the very end of the observation period as the sun set and the full moon rose. 

     The winter has only begun, and what will transpire in the next two months remains to be seen.   But for now, the eagles in the Hudson Valley are few and far between.