Another season-ending cliffhanger for Dallas bald eagles

by Amy Martin – July 18, 2024

If you haven’t been paying attention to the bald eagle drama in Dallas, you’ve been missing out on a thrilling saga. Catch up with this recap of a mated pair’s attempt to raise their young at the urban lake and the triumphant return of one of their lost offspring.

This is the story,
Of Nick and Nora,
Two young bald eagles
Who decided to mate
At White Rock Lake.

Birdwatchers and residents, 
Thrilled at new tenants,
Flocked to the park. 
Eagle celebrities, wildlife royalty
Living near a field for rugby.

YEAR ONE: WINGING IT

In the fall of 2021, birdwatchers noticed a bald eagle pair frequenting White Rock Lake and notified Brett Johnson — Dallas Parks and Recreation’s former senior environmental coordinator turned conservation manager. He alerted the proper state and national authorities, as required by the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, which dictates laws that protect bald eagles.

The bald eagle couple, dubbed Nick and Nora for the lead characters in the classic Thin Man movies, quickly realized that shallow Sunset Bay on the east side of White Rock Lake provided easy pickings. Fish were attracted by floating food people tossed to the wading birds and waterfowl, which could also make a meal for the skilled hunters.

The eagles created a nest on the large cottonwoods at the edge of a rugby field in Lake Highlands Park near Buckner Boulevard, not far from Dixon Branch, a waterway entering the lake at Sunset Bay.

“The eagles are nesting in quite possibly the worst known location,” said Johnson. “We hoped the activity level of the area would encourage them to move along, but they’re looking at that easy commute to Sunset Bay.”

Bird photographers observed mating behavior in early 2022 and within weeks Nora began spending long hours incubating on the nest.

But on Feb. 15, strong winds blew the nest down.

“To say it shattered is an understatement,” said Johnson. “Keep in mind, it was a really dry stick nest that fell from 50 feet up.”

The nest remains contained egg shells. Nick and Nora circled above, shrieking for the rest of the day.

A community mourns.
Some implore: Make them a platform.
Biologists reply: Allow them to learn.

“This is how an eagle couple learns what works and what doesn’t. That location definitely didn’t work,” said Sam Kieschnick, urban biologist for Texas Parks & Wildlife. “They usually pair for life, returning to the same nest, so they’ll grow from this experience. And that’s a great thing.”

Stated Johnson, “Starting about a week and a half later, they started taking over the red-tailed hawk nest in the sycamore in a wooded area next to Dixon Branch. It was pretty evident early on that their engineering was much better than their first nest.”

But it was not to last.

“Sure enough,” continued Johnson, “we had a storm in June of ’22, and pretty much everything the eagles had added to the hawk nest got blown out of the tree. There was no behavioral indication that they ever laid more eggs on the second nest.”

YEAR TWO: THE LEARNING CURVE

The eagles’ bad luck continued into spring 2023.

Wildlife gawkers intruded on their daily lives. The raptors mated, and a new nesting site on Dixon Branch closer to Sunset Bay was constructed but then abandoned. The eagles left for their summer grounds early, leaving fans to wonder: Would they return?

Late that fall,
To the thrill of all
Familiar shapes of eagles in the sky.

Nick and Nora return,
And with them we yearn
For family to give another try. 

This time, Nick and Nora received more personal space. Perhaps it was because people became accustomed to the eagles or learned to respect the birds. Maybe they realized that superior glimpses of the birds came from photographers whose work is abundant on social media. Photographers’ huge lenses allow them to monitor the couple from a respectful distance.

By this point, local photographers including Nick DiGennaro, Mark King Fletcher, Chris Gilpin, Robert Goodman, Grady Hinton, Rajiv Roy, Adam Velte and others developed a nuanced understanding of the eagles’ habits and behavior, obtaining exceptional shots. Followers were thrilled by their photos of nest building, mating, fishing and more.

YEAR THREE: TRY, TRY AGAIN

Back on the creek by the rugby field in early 2024, followers watched the renewed nest grow in the crown of a tree. Once completed, photographers witnessed the eagles doing the deed, albeit relatively late in the season. Then Nora was seen incubating eggs in the nest.

Nick was attentive, rarely at rest,
Flying one fish after another up to the nest.

Nora began to leave the nest occasionally, indicating possibly hatched eggs. There appeared to be regurgitation feeding, but hard to tell with a nest so deep. To the excitement of all, after a couple of weeks, a tiny grey eaglet head peaked above the nest edge. And then a second!

Observers excitedly watched the eaglets’ growth. The baby birds peered over the edge, watching Nick flying his food missions. When not fetching fish, Nick watched the nest, occasionally battling hawks, presumably the ones whose nest the eagles appropriated in 2022.

From the nest the growing birds spy,
Watching their majestic parents fly.
Fetching them food from the lake,
Fish pounded to tender flakes,
For babies just learning to eat.

Bravely the eaglets venture out
Hopping over to a limb nearby,
Standing and flapping their growing wings,
Developing strength to fly.

A BRUTAL WIND

On Tuesday, May 28, in the deep of night, a storm pounded North Texas with 70-mile-per-hour straight-line winds. Residents cringed at the violent sounds of breaking limbs, trees crashing to the ground and bright flashes of powerlines going down. Profuse rain turned the creek into a raging flood.

Many woke the next day with the thought: What about the eagles’ nest?

A crowd gathered in the park at dawn.
The nest, the nest is mostly gone!
Eaglets nowhere to be seen.

After hearing from a city forester about the widespread damage near White Rock, Johnson retrieved his work vehicle and headed to the site, dodging tree debris and stormwater.

Johnson said, “About 9 a.m., I was able to get to the Lake Highland parking lot and started literally wading into where I could get a visual on the nest.  Note it was still storming on and off. By 9:20, I finally got an angle that I could see that at least half the nest was gone. I found both adults but no signs of the eaglets.”

“About this time, we discovered cell coverage was fading rapidly,” Johnson continued. “At 9:32, I put out the first notice that the nest had failed and that I could not find the eaglets. I let Texas Parks and Wildlife and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service know about the nest failure.”

Christopher Morris, who moved into Johnson’s position as senior environmental coordinator, joined Johnson. The duo tried to find a path through standing water to the nest tree, but dangerously damaged trees and concerns over Dixon Branch’s furious torrent turned them back.

Nick and Nora circle and shriek
Above the rubble of their family.
The eaglets are nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps lost in the rushing stream.

EAGLET FOUND!

But across the creek in the Lake Park Estates neighborhood, hope arose. A homeowner woke to a puzzling sight: a large brown bald eagle juvenile hopping around in their backyard, panicked and flapping, though unable to fly.

Johnson and Morris rushed to the resident’s yard. Said Johnson: “Through a complicated game of phone tag with state and federal agents — remember cell phones were working only intermittently — our charge of ‘putting eyes on the eaglet’ morphed into ‘capture and take it to a rehabber.’ But we had to work through the legalities, again with terrible cell coverage.”

Assisted by the homeowner, the biologists approached the eaglet with care. Eventually, the team succeeded in capturing and confining the injured bird.

Due to the storms, outages of electricity, internet and cell service were widespread. The Blackland Prairie Raptor Center (BPRC) near Lake Lavon lacked power or internet. So the eaglet was transported to Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Hutchins until BPRC was up and running again.

BPRC has in-depth experience with bald eagle rehab and a deep commitment to it. After an immense fundraising drive, an 8,000-square-foot flight complex for large raptors and eagles opened in 2018. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has permitted BPRC to care for bald eagles.

The injured eaglet entered their ICU unit. Stated BPRC on social media: “Miraculously, despite falling from great heights, coupled with high winds, it only sustained a shoulder injury, which appeared to be soft tissue damage.”

Before the White Rock Lake eagle rescue, BPRC released a profoundly injured juvenile bald eagle at Lake Texoma last November after six months of rehab. A second-year bald eagle was recently rehabbed and released near Lake Tawakoni.

All eagles at BPRC must pass a flying test before being released, and younger ones must show an ability to catch and eat fish.

Meanwhile, while Henley was in rehab, Johnson and Morris would return to the riparian corridor multiple times, continuing to search for the other eaglet. But the second eaglet was never found.

RETURN OF THE CHICK

The timing of the surviving eaglet’s return to Nick and Nora was crucial because if separated from its parents for too long, the young bird might not be accepted back. Yet the eaglet chick was not ready to be on its own and still required care and feeding by its parents.

“By Thursday, our medical team cleared Henley, and he was moved to an outdoor enclosure, despite the persistent storms preventing initial observations. That Friday, our rehabilitation team assessed his ability to extend his wings, and thankfully everything looked great! With that news, our upper management quickly assembled to devise a release strategy,” stated BPRC on social media.

Johnson and Morris were surprised when BPRC informed them that the eaglet was ready for reintroduction. But there was a problem: the young bird’s nest had been damaged and could not be accessed by people without great disturbance, especially since the storm had super-saturated the soil.

Returning the babe to the lake took a team
Of people being the best they could be
For the love of a bird in need.

Johnson stated on social media: “We got a surprise Saturday morning [June 1]: the eaglet was ready for an attempted reintroduction. Things had to come together very quickly, as we initially thought we had about a week to work out details and also for the area to hopefully dry out some. There was discussion of building a platform 20-plus feet in the air, but with wet soil and conditions of the tree canceled that idea pretty fast.”

A mad scramble ensued to find a solution. To reunite with its parents, the disoriented young bird would need to be placed high off the ground near the nest tree. The clever duo came up with an idea. After driving through a major rainstorm, they used Morris’ credit card to purchase an elevated 12-foot deer stand kit from Cabela’s in Allen, which later covered the costs.

“We get back to White Rock,” said Johnson, “and discover this thing is literally in hundreds of pieces.  The rain had disappeared, but it turned extremely humid. For the next three to four hours in the middle of the afternoon, Morris, my son, and I put together the puzzle, aka deer stand.”

The next feat was transporting the deer stand to Lake Highlands Park and moving it to the nest location. That  required the trio to slog the unwieldy construction for over 200 yards, much of it through standing water. They got the stand anchored to some trees and working with some BPRC volunteers camouflaged it with cut branches.

The biologist duo met with BPRC at the nest site on Sunday morning, joined by assorted volunteers. Several from the Lake Park Estates neighborhood, where the injured eaglet ended up in the storm, were on hand and dubbed the young eagle Henley. Fans’ prior names for the eagle offspring were Asta and Canasta.

BPRC raptor biologist Hailey LeBaron gingerly took the masked eaglet from the transport cage, placed it in the deer stand and unmasked it. Everyone nervously waited. Would Nick and Nora accept their offspring after nearly a week apart?

 

REUNITED!

Once settled in, Henley began calling out for its parents, who responded but did not immediately approach. But their attentiveness grew and they stayed close to the nest.

Within a day, Henley bolted from the deer stand to a low limb on the nearby tree and slowly made his way up to one limb and another. Eventually, he reached the top and a bare limb where Nick and Nora were fond of perching.

Nick flew in and landed next to Henley but facing the opposite direction. After several minutes, he changed directions, and the two sat together for a long time. It was a touching moment.

Imagine an avian parent striving to comprehend
How their chick could disappear and return again.

Soon, the family resumed relations, with Henley resting in the nest and the adult eagles bringing sticks to shore it up. The meal train restarted, with both parents flying in food.

Henley had no problem with fish pieces given to him. Getting him to work on a whole fish was another matter. Fish after fish was laid on a limb next to him and fell to the ground — a boon to woodland scavengers. It wasn’t hard to read frustration into the parents’ body language. But off Nick and Nora would fly and return with yet another fish.

Marking his official graduation from eaglet to juvenile bald eagle, Henley started flying forays, first around the rugby field and along Dixon Branch. The day he breached Buckner Boulevard and made it to Sunset Bay was big.

Before Henley can hunt independently, he must learn from his parents the complex process of what to hunt, where to find it, and how to hunt it — honing lots of memory, technique and skills.

Raptors learning to hunt is a dangerous task.
One small mistake might be your last.

While bald eagles greatly favor fish, they’re happy to eat carrion and are inordinately fond of stealing catches from other birds of prey and even human fisherfolk. Henley must learn how to hunt waterfowl, rodents and snakes.

ONWARD

Bald eagles in the South tend to spend summers in cooler places such as the upper Midwest, Great Lakes, or Canada. Nick and Nora have followed this pattern, departing by August. Henley will most likely tag along.

Henley has a rough road ahead. Bald eagles endure high mortality in their initial six months to a year, with the first winter being especially tough. Some studies state that up to 72 percent will perish in the first 12 months after fledging.

Journey North — a migration study institute of the University of Wisconsin-Madison — estimates that only about one in 10 eagles survive to five years of age. During that time, their bill turns from a deep brown-black to yellow, and head and tail feathers take on their distinctive white color.

We’ll be rooting for a safe adolescence, Henley, and hope you find the perfect river or reservoir to raise your own family.

This is the story,
Of Nick and Nora,
Who we watched grow up
And overcome bad luck
To thrive at White Rock Lake.

WHITE ROCK BALD LAKE EAGLES TIMELINE

Fall 2021 – Bald eagle pair first spotted building nest at edge of rugby field in Lake Highlands Park on White Rock Lake.
Winter 2022 – Female bald eagle seen incubating eggs. The nest is blown down in storm. About 10 days later, the pair take over red-tailed hawk nest next to Dixon Branch Creek.
Spring 2022 – The newly remodeled hawk’s nest is blown out by storm.
Spring 2023 – The bald eagle pair spend the year constructing a new nest on Dixon Branch.
Spring 2024 – With the new nest built, the pair successfully hatch two eaglets. But in May, a storm blows the nest down. After a search, one eaglet is spotted and eventually taken to Blackland Prairie Raptor Center. After being cleared, the eaglet is quickly returned to a makeshift nest. Henley reunites with his parents, who continue his care.
Summer 2024 – Nick and Nora are expected to migrate north in August for the rest of the summer. Henley is expected to follow.

HOW TO HELP

Instigated by the bald eagle rescues, BPRC’s 2024 goal is to create a fund to help better facilitate emergency efforts. Donations to the 501(c)3 are tax deductible.

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