Since I monitored this site for the past two years, when I read this email,
I made sure to stop by after work today. When I arrived, Jean Birdsall was
there. Unfortunately, we both stood there looking at the mature bald eagle
sitting among the abandoned heron nests. It looks like the herons will not
be back, at least for this year. Last year, I recorded 38 of 43 chicks
apparently successfully fledged from this site. Five were in a nest that
fell from the tree before they were able to fly. Don't know if they survived
or not.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynn & Carol Schulz" <linusq at worldnet.att.net>
To: "Tweets" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Cc: "Jim & Jean (h) Birdsall" <jimnjean at attbi.com>; "Jean (w)"
<Jeanb at norstarmachine.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 6:27 PM
Subject: Eagles at Bellefields Heronry


> Tweeters:
> My sister Jean Birdsall lives near Bellevue and the heronry at Bellefield
> business park in the Mercer Slough. She just sent the following message
and
> some pictures of two adult Bald Eagles in the heron nests. Her message
> follows. If anyone wants to see the pictures she took, email off-list and
> I'll send them to you.
> Carol Schulz
> DesMoines
> linusq at att.net
> -----------------------------
> Here is her message.
> Carol:
> I have some really bad news to report about the Heron rookery at
Bellefield.
> Today as I was driving to the bank I noticed 2 large birds in the nest
that
> appeared to have white heads. I went to the Peppertree Restaurant to
check
> it out further & there were 2 bald eagles in the largest nesting tree.
> Amazingly I was able to drive home, get my camera and they were still
there
> when I got back. They were both there just sitting on the nests for a
short
> while after I got back & then they took off and just started lazily
soaring
> in circles above the park. I haven't been by there in the last week, so I
> don't know if there were babies in the nests yet. There have been plenty
of
> adults recently, though. I've always been surprised that this rookery has
> been so successful given the number of bald eagles along the East Channel.
> One of these might be that one I saw a few years ago try to attack the
> adults in their nest. That time he/she was unsuccessful, but that's not
the
> case this time.
>
> Carol, you may want to notify Tweeters of what I saw. I know there are
> various people out there that are monitoring the success rate of the
> rookies. Particularly after the problems at Green River. I'm going to be
> keeping a close look out in the future, but things don't look good.
>
> Jean
>
>