Chris,
My guess is that Margaret Fowle, who is heading up the eagle project, is already aware of the Somerset Eagles from previous years reports. Just in case she did not see your posting I will forward this along to her. Thanks for the information.

Mark

Mark LaBarr
Director of Conservation
Audubon Vermont
255 Sherman Hollow Road
Huntington, VT 05462
802-434-3068
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-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Petrak [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 6:33 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VTBIRD] Somerset Eagles


At Somerset Reservoir today there were two adult Bald Eagles, with a clear difference in size, suggesting a male and female.

Breeding Bird Atlas criteria say that a "pair observed in suitable nesting habitat during breeding" is a "probable."

Three possibilities for the pair we observed:
1) breeding pair which had already failed for some reason - eggs didn't hatch, or young succumbed to something
2) breeding pair which has not yet laid eggs
3) two eagles in transit

Today's observation is consistent with several years of casual reports, and specific reports last year and this year by VBBA atlassers - namely - that during the breeding season there are adult eagles consistently at the northern end of Somerset Reservoir. This year on 5/1, another atlassers, Sylvia Harris, observed an adult eagle which flew north toward Grout Pond, just as the pair did today. (Sylvia couldn't canoe fast enough to see where they went.)

Perhaps a portion of the grant obtained by Jeffords could be used to look for the nest of the "probable" nesting eagles somewhere in the vicinity of the northern Somerset Reservoir