At least one eaglet still visible at Lahontan Reservoir

Thursday, May 28, 1998 | 3:45 a.m.

Nevada Division of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy said the agency received three reports over the Memorial Day weekend of one eaglet being visible in the nest at Lahontan Reservoir.

"All of the sightings were in windy, cold weather. There is a chance that the other one could be further down in the nest," he said.

But he added that only one eaglet normally survives because of sibling rivalry.

"The evidence is kind of mounting that that is the case," he added.

Two eaglets hatched in late April. Biologists said if one survives it would be Nevada's first home-grown bald eagle in more than 120 years. Healy said it would be another month of so before the chick or chicks would be ready to leave the nest.

The mating couple first appeared in the tree last year, but a baby chick apparently blew out of the nest and drowned when it was about six weeks old.

Wildlife officials have placed buoys around the site to keep boaters away, and the need to leave the eagles alone is why nobody knows how many chicks are in the nest.

"Our biologist tells us it's real important to stay away from them," Healy said.

The last recorded bald eagle birth and survival in Nevada was in the 1870s on Anaho Island in Pyramid Lake.

Experts worry that lingering effects of mining in the Comstock more than a century ago could be more hazardous to this year's chick than humans.

An autopsy performed on the chick that died last year showed high levels of mercury in its feathers and low levels of the metal in its organs.

Both probably came from the fish its parents carried to it from the Carson River below Dayton, which is laced with mercury used to separate gold from its ore in the mid to late 1800s.

Since the bird was decaying, it will never be known whether the mercury caused the chick to die or if it was a contributing factor, according to Donna Withers, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"The chemical is definitely an issue," she said.