There are now bald eagle nests near many, if not most, of the traditionally
occupied heronries around Puget Sound. The pattern of bald eagle nests
appearing very close to large heronries suggests that the existence of a
heronry influences the eagles' choice of a nesting location.

Bald eagle depredation and harassment is also affecting seabirds like
double-crested cormorants and common murres. In fact, repeated failure of
all nesting attempts in some common murre rookeries has been attributed to
bald eagle harassment. Dr. Julia Parrish has pioneered the "silk forest,"
an artificial, shrub-mimicking canopy that shows promise for making murres
feel secure when eagles fly over, thus keeping them in place to protect eggs
and young. Cormorants have delayed nesting to take advantage of the late
summer migration of resident bald eagles to parts north. In some cormorant
rookeries, the young fledge at late as November.

Of course, I have never observed any of this myself. I spend all of my time
in a state employee cubery.

Kelly McAllister
alleyes at tssnet1.tss.net