Bald eagle fledgling apparently joins the wild

Tuesday, July 20, 1999 | 3:32 a.m.

They removed a protective buoy buffer Monday from the nesting island of a pair of bald eagles after determining that the fledgling was gone.

The young eagle is the product of the second successful nesting of a pair of bald eagles that took up residence at the lake three years ago.

The fledgling was last seen around the nest the weekend of July 4, and it hasn't been spotted since.

Larry Neel, a non-game biologist for the Nevada Division of Wildlife, said the young eagle may still be nearby.

"There appears to be a lot of good fishing in the Carson River delta area, and there's an awful lot of habitat there, so there are lots of places it could hide and not be seen," he said.

The nesting area was originally cordoned off with floating buoys in a 300-foot-radius circle to keep "curious traffic" out from underneath it, Neel said.

"We've had very good compliance from boaters," said Neel. "They've really respected the buoy line."

Neel said he is happy to see that the Lahontan pair is part of the successful recovery process of the American bald eagle, just removed from the endangered species list the last day the nestling was seen.

When America adopted the bald eagle as its national symbol in 1782, as many as 100,000 nesting bald eagles lived in the continental United States. However, by 1963, only 417 nesting pairs were found.

Today, due to recovery efforts by the Interior Department's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in partnership with other federal agencies and concerned organizations, this number has risen to an estimated 5,748 nesting pairs.