Right now there’s a visible bald eagle nest across the slough west of Riverfront Park. Check it out. Eagle eggs are incubated about 35 days before nestlings hatch. Then it is up to three months before those young begin to fledge. So these eggs now at Riverfront should hatch this April, increasi ng the amount of prey the male must carry back. The female will also hunt while the male perches at or near the nest, depending on weather. The American bald eagle has thrived since the U.S. banned the use of the insecticide DDT in 1974. Because of DDT, the species had become endangered—no longer. A bald eagle is a large predator and scavenger that can take a wide variety or prey, including fish stolen from osprey.  The Willamette Valley provides an ideal habitat for our national symbol. Large trees for nesting, open water for fishing. Even a winter when lakes and rivers don’t freeze solid as they might in Alaska. So our resident eagles are joined by migrant eagles down from the Arctic during the coldest months. An adult male bald eagle high up as sentinel, with the nest in lower left-hand corner.(HARRY FULLER photo) A mated pair will often reuse a nest every year as long as the previous year was successful.  Different generations of eagles may continue to use a nest. Each year will require nest repairs and replacements, of course. An eagle pair nests once a year. If the first clutch of eggs or nestlings are lost, a pair may try once more. Most large birds take more than a year to mature.  Generally, a bald eagle is 4 years old before it has the pure white head and tail and is sexually mature. A first-year eagle is mostly dark brown with some splashes of white across the chest, back and wings. Over the next 3 years each molt moves the juvenile eagle a little closer toward what the mature birds display, that postage stamp glamour. A mature bald eagle can have a wingspan of 80 inches, one of the widest in North America.  The large wings allow the bird to soar easily on windless days. The eagles’ eyesight is excellent, even at long distance. The very sharp beak is moved by strong muscles that wrap around the bird’s elongated skull. In winter, when temperatures are below 20 degrees, I have seen eagles using that beak to break off bits of frozen swan carcass in the Klamath Basin. Turkey vultures have to migrate to warmer winter weather because they don’t have the strength to eat frozen meat like an eagle. Eagles are also immune to some diseases that kill crowds of wintering waterfowl. Duck is always high on the eagles’ menu. For information about upcoming Salem Audubon programs and activities, see www.salemaudubon.org, or Salem Audubon’s Facebook page. Harry Fuller is an Oregon birder and natural history author of “Freeway Birding” and the newly-published “Birding Harney County.” He is a member of the Salem Audubon Society. Contact him at [email protected] or atowhee.blog. His “Some Fascinating Things About Birds” column appears regularly in Salem Reporter. LOCAL NEWS DELIVERED TO YOU: Subscribe to Salem Reporter and get all the fact-based Salem news that matters to you. Fair, accurate, trusted – SUBSCRIBE The post COLUMN: Salem’s riverfront eagles take to the nest appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less