If you’ve been out and about looking for the wintering bald eagles along the Wasatch Front but coming up empty-handed, you’re not alone.
This year has been a bit unpredictable, especially since Farmington Bay isn’t attracting the dozens of bald eagles it has the past couple of years.
Yesterday, I came up with zero bald eagles at Farmington Bay but found a small group later in the day just outside the Antelope Island marina on the Great Salt Lake.
But overall, finding bald eagles along the Wasatch Front has been a hit-or-miss proposition at best for the past few weeks or more.
I was up at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge today and, surprisingly, I had 15 different sightings of bald eagles in an hour’s time driving around the area.
Most of the bald eagles were seen along the Bear River itself on Forest Street on the way down to the auto tour route with a couple of the eagles out on the ice on the southeast corner of the auto loop.
One bald eagle, the most interesting bird of the day, in fact, was sitting in a nest about 2 miles from the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
It seems the yearly nesting pair of bald eagles have returned, hopefully, to offer their efforts once again in breeding another round of eaglets.
The nest location, as far as I know, isn’t well known but on private property near the bird refuge.
I, however, have mixed feelings about sharing the exact location of the eagle nest.
Nesting birds can be sensitive to human intrusion, that is quite true and sometimes an issue when birds and humans cross paths.
But in this case, however, that isn’t the worry here as the land around the nest is heavily farmed and the birds have nested there for years with no worries.
The issue here is offering the nest location publicly and having people trespass on private property just to get a closer look at the eagle nest.
I am all for getting people out and viewing wildlife, but I am also concerned about unintentionally causing people to take matters into their own hands and trespass on private land for a closer view or photograph.
So for now, I am holding off on giving out the exact location of this particular bald eagle nest through this blog.
But suffice it to say, there are a fair number of wintering bald eagles in the area of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge for bird watchers and photographers to find and enjoy, especially in the mornings from my experience.
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