Anticipation is high around the Kiawah Island entrance gate these days. The first eagle chick of the South Carolina nesting season will take wing any day now from a nest scarcely 200 yards from busy Kiawah Island Parkway.
We're really excited," said Marilyn Blizard, a Kiawah Island Natural Habitat Conservancy trustee who has kept a close watch on the nest, parents and chick.
The female laid the egg the first week in November, as early as eagles ever produce eggs here, said biologist Tom Murphy, who has tracked bald eagle nesting for 27 years for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.
On Tuesday, the brown chick was jumping up and down on the side of the nest with wings fully extended, said Blizard.
PROVIDED by JENNIFER LAMARAn adult bald eagle sits on its Kiawah Island nest.The 10-week-old chick is building its pectoral muscles and should soon be walking on limbs near the nest in the tall pine, he said. Murphy describes it as eagle aerobics. Eagles usually take flight when they're 10 to 12 weeks old.
This would be the first fledging this year and about the earliest Murphy has seen in South Carolina, where eagle chicks usually leave the nest in March and April.
From the parking lot of the Kiawah real estate office near the front gate, people can get a good look at the nest, which is set in the tallest pine tree in the area. Follow the driveway until it swings back to intersect with Kiawah Island Parkway. The nest is straight ahead.
So far, Murphy has counted 151 occupied nests this winter, compared with 13 nesting pairs in 1977, and he has more to check. He expects the final total to come close to the 171 occupied nests that fledged 197 young last year.
"It looks like the population is doing well overall," Murphy said.
However, some South Carolina eagles have died in recent months from West Nile virus and from a neurological disease known as AVM, or avian vacuolar myelinopathy.
West Nile was confirmed in this state last year for the first time. Birds of prey such as eagles are particularly vulnerable.
The S.C. Center for Birds of Prey treated an eagle that appeared to be recovering but suddenly died. A necropsy confirmed it had active West Nile virus, said center director James Elliott.
Nesting has plummeted at Lake Strom Thurmond on the Georgia border due to AVM. This winter, three more dead eagles are being tested, and one was confirmed to have died of AVM, Murphy said.
Three of South Carolina's four eagle territories on the lake have been lost. The birds were suspected or confirmed victims of the fatal AVM disease that causes brain lesions. Birds also have vanished from two of Georgia's six eagle territories on the lake,.
The disease appears to be associated with the aquatic plant hydrilla and an alga that produces a natural biotoxin. Many coots and some other hydrilla-eating birds have died of AVM. Eagles are thought to become infected after feeding on sick coots.
Elliott also worries about shootings, which is still a problem despite hefty federal and state penalties. His center is treating a bald eagle shot a month ago in Berkeley County. It is thought to be one of a pair nesting near the Cooper River. Umbria Plantation caretaker Ray Marsh found the downed eagle after he heard shots fired.
Last month, the center treated two Williamsburg County eagles that locked talons while battling over territory, a natural event now that the eagle population has grown. Usually eagles release their grip before striking the ground. These two didn't. One has recovered and been released. The second is being treated for foot and other injuries.
Back at the Kiawah Island nest, the two adults deliver fish and coots to their chick and will continue to feed it for six to eight weeks after it leaves the nest, Murphy said.
At fledging, a dark brown youngster usually crash-lands on the ground and can't fly well enough to return to the nest. The bird usually hops and flaps its way onto a lower branch of a nearby plant and calls to parents with a "kakking," begging sound.
When able to fly better, the young bird often returns to the nest for the night and for food deliveries from parents. Later, the fledgling will follow its parents, but adults aren't known to teach their young to fish or hunt, Murphy said.
Within about two months of fledging, parents and young go their separate ways, and the juvenile bird apparently learns to catch prey instinctively.
The juvenile and both parents, if they survive, are expected to return to Kiawah next fall. The site might seem unusual because of the steady flow of traffic and other activity very close by, Murphy pointed out.
"We're seeing more and more of that," as the eagle population increases, he said.
