Bald Eagle Nest Confirmed in the Gorge Metro Park

Three more pairs of bald eagles have built nests in remote and inaccessible areas in northeast Ohio, according to parks officials and biologists, our partners at WEWS News Channel 5 report. 

The new nests are in Summit County, and officials say the latest finds bring the number of bald eagle nests in that county to four, the Akron Beacon Journal reports.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates at least 190 active eagle nests in the state, but says the number of eaglets in 2013 has not been estimated.

The number of active nests is down slightly from 2012 when the state estimated 210 nests in 62 of Ohio's 88 counties that hatched an estimated 321 eaglets. Ohio had four confirmed eagle nests in 1979.

One of the new nests in Summit County was built in the Gorge Metro Park between Akron and Cuyahoga Falls, and another is on park-owned land in Clinton in southern Summit County, said Michael Johnson, chief of natural resources for Metro Parks, Serving Summit County.

Johnson said two eaglets appear to be in the Clinton nest, but officials are unsure if the Gorge nest hatched chicks.

The other new nest is in Steiner Woods, a 23-acre property the University of Akron owns next to the Bath Nature Preserve, said spokesman and biology professor Greg Smith. Officials do not know how many eaglets might be in the Bath Township nest, he said.

A bald eagle nest has existed at Nimisila Reservoir in Green for several years.

There have been reports for four years of eagles along the Cuyahoga River north of Akron, but no nests were initially found.

Bald eagles are continuing to grow in number and showing a growing ability to coexist with humans that wildlife experts did not think they possessed years ago, Johnson said.

But park officials strongly encourage people to stay away from the nests and not scare off the eagles.

The new nests were announced this past week, but park district workers repairing a trail discovered the Gorge nest last spring, and spotted the eagles and the nest in a tree near the Cuyahoga River.

A park district biologist discovered the Clinton nest a month ago in the Clinton Conservation Area that includes a swampy flood plain along the Tuscarawas River.

Longtime birdwatcher Marie Morgan of Akron, said she was "stunned and just so excited" by the discoveries of the nests.

Earlier this year, Morgan and other bird watchers searched without success for eagles along the Cuyahoga River in Akron and Cuyahoga Falls.

That eagles are nesting in the Akron area is indicative of how their numbers have grown on Lake Erie and how the birds are moving in increasing numbers to inland locations, said birdwatcher Bill Osborne of Cuyahoga Falls.