The Radnor eagles have landed – again

Radnor has had an occasional visiting eagle in the past, but last year the pair became the first to reside and nest in the park. Two eggs were laid, but one of the hatchlings perished when the nest collapsed during a storm. The surviving yearling continues to live in the protected natural area.

The undaunted parents built a new nest of sticks and twigs in the same tree. Radnor manager Steve Ward expects eggs to be laid any time now, to begin their 30-day incubation period.

If a nest is not destroyed, eagles add on to it year after year, with some older nests reaching the size of a Volkswagen and weighing a ton.

Eagles in the wild usually survive 20-25 years. But one in captivity – like a bullet-crippled one housed in Radnor’s aviary – lived to see 50 candles on its birthday cake.

Eagles are majestic, but they order off the same menu as buzzards. They’ll eat anything they can get their talons on.

On our annual fishing trips to the Canadian wilderness, eagles were as common as backyard sparrows. They were also savvy. Every afternoon after we cleaned our catch, we hauled the scraps out to appropriately-christened Gut Island.

As soon as the eagles saw the boat approaching, they came flocking to the rancid goodies.

They also perched in shoreline trees, screeching their shrill screes and watching us fish. When we released a walleye, an eagle often would swoop down and pluck it off the surface.

The Radnor eagles feed on fish, turkeys, ducks, geese, squirrels, racoons, deer carcasses and area road-kill. Ward estimates they forage in a three-mile radius of the park.

Eagles were on the brink of extinction in the U.S. in the early 1900s. Their eggs weren’t hatching, and it took decades to figure out why: DDT pesticide in the food chain caused the egg shells to be too brittle to hatch.

DDT was banned in 1972 and eagles, under federal protection, began an immediate resurgence. By the 1980s they were common sights around Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee, where “Eagle Tours” are a popular tourist attraction.

Several years ago eagles began arriving in Middle Tennessee, with nests appearing on Dale Hollow, Cheatham, Center Hill and Old Hickory lakes – and eventually Radnor.

Congress decreed the bald eagle our national symbol in 1782. It beat out Ben Franklin’s nominee, the wild turkey, which was defeated by the powerful Eagle Lobby.

They are fascinating birds, with an amazing ability to adapt to every environment – from the remote Canadian wilds to Nashville’s Music Row.

Radnor Lake visitors are invited to observe and photograph the nesting eagles from a distance but are not permitted to intrude too closely.

Our most celebrated bird likes its privacy.