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I was enthusiastically describing my annual osprey photo safari to a friend who lives beside the St Lawrence river in the Thousand Islands area. "ospreys are ok", he said "but we've had an eagle nest on an island just up from here for the last couple of years. Come on up and I'll show it to you".

Eagles have been on the endangered species list in North America since 1966 but were taken off the list just this year. Described as abundant in the 1800's, bald eagles were especially numerous on the coasts and inland lake areas across the continent, attracted by fish, their food of preference. Hunted by humans and then affected severely by DDT ingestion, eagles became very rare except in remote areas by the 1950's. Alaska paid a 50 cent bounty for any eagle shot and records indicate 128,000 bounty payments were made between 1917 and 1952. Generally eagles were shot on sight in many areas to protect farm animals (or just for sport), as was the case with most raptors.

By the end of the 1990's eagles were breeding in all but two American states (Vermont and Rhode Island) and in all Canadian provinces, a major conservation success story. In some areas "hacking" has been used successfully to restore eagle populations. Eagle chicks (taken from nests where eagles are plentiful) are fed and overseen by humans until able to leave the special enclosure which has served as a nest. The nest, or hack box, is usually on a tower or cliff face, and although the nestlings can see their surroundings from the box, the human minders are always concealed to prevent imprinting. This technique was derived from falconry practices in the 1970's and has also been successfully applied to osprey and peregrine falcons.

The Thousand Islands eagles have been nesting successfully for several years, although their nest site location is curious. On a small rocky island (festooned with "no trespassing, no human access" signs by Canada Wildlife), the huge nest is situated in a tall pine tree above a busy stretch of river constantly traveled by outboards, water skiers, cruise boats, and seadoos. Why would they choose to live in such heavily populated area? Beats me!
But it gives encouragement to the idea that eagles may soon be commonly found living and breeding again in Southern Quebec.