We have a pair of eagles who decided that they liked living here. They’ve shown up at their nest again but haven’t taken up housekeeping yet. They generally live here in the fall through the spring. Once they young are raised they move off allowing their local hunting territory to recover.

They first arrived in 2006 and it was obviously their first year as a couple. They tried nesting in a couple of locations, one less than 100 yards from US 41, before deciding on a tree next to one of the busiest local roads in town. It was right across the street from our Visual Arts Center so, photographers and artists quickly discovered them. They didn’t raise any young that year.

During the 07/08 season they had two young. One timid and one bold .

In 08/09 they mated and produced two eggs. Unfortunately, the tree which held the nest was damaged in a windstorm. As you can see in the two pictures above, the nest was basically in a fork with some slight extra support at the bottom. Eagles continually add to their nests and as a result the smaller support collapsed under load. the The nest fell and the eggs were broken. When that occured, they moved to their current location next to the Punta Gorda History Park and built a new nest. No young were produced at the new location. The new nest seems a lot more secure than the first so we hope to see them for many more years.

Last year in the 09/10 season they had one baby which sadly didn’t live long enough to make its first flight. While it lived, it created a lot of joy for the local birders who named the baby Yoyo because of it’s habit of popping up and down. The second picture shows the full nest in the new locations. It obviously has a lot more supporting branches and should be a good location for years.