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Wildlife
Information
Center
Wildlife Notes
Autumn 2002
Articles:
PA
Bald Eagles Continue Strong Comeback
Two
More Ospreys Shot in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
Millionaire Convicted of Killing Hawks
Condor Chicks Hatch in Wild
For the first time since the last wild California Condors were taken into captivity in 1986, a condor chick has hatched in the wild — in fact three breeding pairs that have been reintroduced to the wild successfully hatched an egg this year. Last year, a reintroduced pair in Arizona produced the first egg since the recovery effort began, but the inexperienced birds broke the egg. Expectations were high for successful breeding this year, and the condors obliged, with 5 eggs laid, 3 in California and 2 in the Arizona population. Both Arizona eggs were found broken again, but all three California eggs hatched and the young were surviving as of August. A total of 76 reintroduced condors survive in the wild, 32 near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and 44 in two populations in Southern and Central California. Source: Los Angeles Zoo; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
No Ivory-bills Found
In spite of intensive search efforts by a team of scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, no Ivory-billed Woodpeckers have been found in the Pearl River area, where a credible report of a sighting occurred last year. Visual observation and sound recording equipment failed to find any of the birds in an intensive search. Hopes are dim that America’s largest woodpecker survives in its decimated habitat. Source: Audubon
PA Bald Eagles Continue Strong Comeback
The Bald Eagle continues to make great strides in its road to recovery in Pennsylvania. The PA Game Commission reports that there were 63 active nests located around the state in 2002, up from 55 in 2001 and 48 in 2000.
The eagle was designated an endangered
species in 1967 with fewer than 500 nests remaining in the nation at that time.
The national bird responded to the protections it was granted, and there are
now estimated to be over 6,000 nesting pairs in the continental United States,
with over 600 active nests in the Chesapeake Bay region alone. The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service downlisted the Bald Eagle from
“endangered” to “threatened” status in 1995 and is planning to declassify the
species entirely. The eagle remains an endangered species in PA.
The road to recovery for the Bald Eagle in Pennsylvania began in 1983, when a dozen nestlings from Canada were brought to hacking sites in the Poconos and on the Susquehanna River. Nestlings were brought in throughout the remainder of the decade and in the early 1990s, eagle nesting activity began.
The most exciting news about the recovery effort is that the birds are recolonizing areas where they have long been absent. Green Lane Reservoir in Montgomery county is a good example — the first nest in that county in over 100 years. Another pair nested along Broadhead Creek, near Stroudsburg in eastern PA, raising hopes that others will nest along Pennsylvania’s many streams. This magnificent predator with its 6-7 foot wingspan and gleaming white head and tail is being seen regularly throughout the state and continues to increase in numbers. Source: PA Game Commission, Hazleton Standard Speaker, Pottsville Mercury
Two More Ospreys Shot in Pennsylvania
Two more Ospreys were shot and killed in Perry County,
Pennsylvania last May. Three Ospreys, two Bald Eagles, and a Golden Eagle have
been shot in Pennsylvania since 2000. One Bald Eagle was killed and the killer
was caught and convicted. The other two eagles went to Carbon County
Environmental Center for rehabilitation, and the Bald Eagle was released last
April. Our job of protecting birds of prey, and educating the public about them
is not over. Source: Hazleton Standard
Speaker, WIC
50 year-old Manx Shearwater
Bird banders off
the coast of
Pennsylvania Millionaire Convicted of Killing Hawks
Gwynne
McDevitt, a 71 year-old millionaire with an estate in
Delaware County near Philadelphia, plead guilty to ordering her employees to
kill hawks on her estate. She raises horses and hunting dogs on her farm, and
stocks the farm with quail and pheasants to train the dogs to hunt. She applied
for a permit to kill hawks in 1997 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
was denied. She then took matters into her own hands and ordered her staff to
trap and kill hawks in violation of federal and state law -- at least 171 were
killed. McDevitt will pay more than $130,000 in
fines, must publicize her crime in Gun
Dog magazine, and must perform 200 hours of community service.