This is the article from the Courier Post:
Bald eagles steal show at Winter Raptor Festival
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Brent Burke spots the mottled mass of brown feathers out on the icy Maurice River within moments of arriving at the causeway that spans the Cumberland County waterway.
It's a young bald eagle, virtually motionless and almost perfectly camouflaged amid the brown reeds - to a lesser experienced eye, that is.
Then a mature eagle, its gleaming white tail and head plumage distinct despite the distance, bursts into view, strafing the river, likely in search of fish or even a duck on the wing.
In a matter of minutes, Burke, an exuberant 29-year-old program coordinator for the Nature Conservancy, spots at least five bald eagles - three juveniles and two adults.
One of the young eagles even shares a patch of ice with a river otter, a sight rarely seen; it's possible the otter has a fish the eagle wants.
This is about as good as it gets for anyone looking for eagles in New Jersey, or anywhere in the Middle Atlantic region, for that matter, Burke says.
"Wow, this is spectacular!" he declares, looking through his spotting scope set on a roadside embankment that provides an elevated view of the river as it sweeps out of Millville. "Man, we stepped into it this morning."
Burke and Glenn Nickerson, Cumberland County's information officer, took me out to the river this weekto get a taste of what visitors can expect during the county's Fourth Annual Winter Raptor Festival on Feb. 7.
Several years ago, county officials realized they were sitting on a natural treasure, largely unknown outside the area - a large contingent of resident eagles complemented each winter by eagles that migrate from places like New York, Maine and Canada.
"What's kind of amusing is many people will spend thousands of dollars for a trip to Alaska to see eagles," Nickerson said, "and here they are within an hour, hour-and-a-half drive from the metro areas in Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York. They're right here in your back yard."
The festival draws attention to red-tailed hawks, northern harriers and other birds of prey, or raptors, found in profusion in the Delaware Bay region at this time of year.
But it's eagles, of course, that steal the show. The plight of the American bald eagle is well known. Eggshell thinning caused by DDT decimated the national bird in most states.
By the early 1980s, only one pair of nesting eagles remained in New Jersey, in Cumberland County's Bear Swamp. The state relocated eagles from Canada, carefully nurturing their offspring. This, combined with bans on DDT, brought the bald eagle back from the brink.
The species has especially rebounded in the bay region, which provides ideal habitat: expansive marshlands fringed by forests.
Opportunistic, they forage tidal rivers that stay clear enough of ice in all but the worst winters. "The ice, as it encroaches, it kind of narrows the open water spots that their prey species, like ducks, can survive in," Burke said. "For eagles, it's kind of like an all-you-can-eat buffet got smashed into one small room. They really don't have to go very far."
More than 1,000 people attended previous raptor festivals. Even a major snowstorm that hit right before the event last year deterred few. County road crews quickly plowed the roads, some only roughly paved lanes that lead out to vast marshlands that sweep toward the bay. Such a marshland is found in an area around Turkey Point Road, a primitive setting just south of the hamlet of Dividing Creek. There, we spotted two more eagles, one perched regally atop a dead pine tree snag and another circling in the gray winter sky.
The festival's hub will be the Mauricetown Fire Hall, where naturalists will speak throughout the day and visitors can register. Roads radiating from there will be marked with signs leading festival visitors to viewing spots staffed by experts, like Burke, who will provide insights and tips on spotting the birds.
This makes the festival perfect for novices, Burke said, adding it doesn't take much to begin enjoying raptors. "You find the shape that just doesn't belong. You scan along the top of the trees and think, `Man, that dark lump on a tree with no foliage, that doesn't belong, let's take a closer look at that,' and you throw your binoculars up. "This goes to the point that you don't need to have the most expensive equipment to come down here and enjoy this. You can have an old pair of binoculars and still see eagles just fine."
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Reach Lawrence Hajna at (856) 486-2466 or
lhajna@courierpostonline.com
