​Our national symbol has been creating quite a stir in and around Norwalk, Ohio. To local residents of this small-town region dominated by corn and soybean fields, the sight of a Bald Eagle is still a surprise though they’re becoming more common each year. The story of Bald Eagles settling into Ohio’s more rural areas – a landscape once believed to be unsuitable for one of our largest birds – is intriguing, and a testament to the success of this species’ return from the brink of extinction in the state. Today, nests are dotted across the landscape, and more are being added annually. In an era where bird populations are declining, this growth is heartening. But the threats are expanding, too.  

In Norwalk, a relatively new resident – but long-time bird watcher – has been enjoying learning her new home turf and has discovered that you can find birds wherever you look, not just at famous birding areas. To her astonishment, what awaited her at the Norwalk Reservoir was a sight that could be expected along the marshes of western Lake Erie, but had never been seen before in Huron County. 

​So. Many. EAGLES! 
​
Bald Eagles have been seen more frequently in the Norwalk area after an increase in nesting territories in Huron, Seneca, and southern Sandusky Counties over the past decade, but the spectacle that greeted the resident required a deep breath. Not one, not five, and not ten, but 48 Bald Eagles of various ages could be seen at one time from her car.

This was too great of an experience to keep to oneself. After a few calls, word began to spread, and visitors from the area began arriving to take in the display. It was an awesome exhibition of Ohio’s largest bird of prey, not only for sheer numbers, but also for a closer look into the behaviors of this impressive bird. In every direction there were fights between birds, chases, food procurement, and interactions giving glimpses of eagle population dynamics. One eagle even decided that the best place to eat lunch was right beside a visitor’s car! 

Over the next few days, the spectacle went viral on social media and attracted the local media. The parking lot was full, and every make of spotting scope, binocular, and phone was trained on the magnificent animals. The hard part was which bird to concentrate on. Everything from dark birds hatched last summer, to heavily mottled three- and four-year-old birds with varying amounts of white in the head and tail, to the majestic, white-headed, five-plus-year-old birds that may be the most recognized bird in America. They were all there for the enjoyment of anyone who ventured to see what the excitement was all about. No one went home disappointed.

​A Battle for Air Space 
​
But this incredible spectacle – one that no one could have predicted occurring in rural Ohio even a decade ago – is at odds with an expanding industry also vying for a foothold - and air space -  in the region. Just six miles to the west of Norwalk Reservoir begins the potential footprint of Emerson Creek Wind, a wind power facility proposed by Apex Clean Energy that would place more than SEVENTY massive turbines in the air column. Multiple eagle nests have been documented in the project footprint by concerned local residents, but the wind company is denying the existence of many of them (a denial of evidence that should not be allowed to stand).  

An eagle’s nest within the footprint of a wind facility can be the project’s death knell if federal laws are upheld and enforced. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s own Eagle Conservation Plan (ECP) guidelines state in clear language that any nest located within the footprint of a project categorizes it as a Category 1 project. Category 1 projects are high-risk and require considerable redesign to be downgraded to Category 2; otherwise, they should be discontinued.

​Bald and Golden Eagles are the most protected birds in America. The governing acts are the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA) and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). The Eagle Act has the added benefit of protecting all parts of the bird as well as its nest and the tree that contains the nest. While there is now a “Take” provision in the BGEPA that allows industries to kill a certain number of eagles without fear of prosecution, the plan is clear that a Category 1 project would not qualify for a “Take Permit,” even though that is the avenue being pursued by Apex Clean Energy for the Emerson Creek Wind facility. (We don’t refer to these projects as “farms,” since that’s a term that wind energy companies use to market these industrial sites to make them sound quaint or more fitting for rural areas.) 

A true success story involving decades of effort, millions of dollars in donated public funds, and thousands of volunteer hours, the scope of the Bald Eagle Recovery Program initiated in Ohio in 1979 cannot be understated. What, at the lowest, was four breeding pairs in the entire state with little to no natural production has exploded to over 900 pairs recorded in the 2023 survey by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. This number doesn’t include an unknown number of non-breeding birds from the past several breeding seasons, which could easily represent several thousand birds just biding their time until the primal urge to settle down takes control of their hormones. 

While this growth is impressive, it can be wiped out if we do not continue to be good stewards of the habitat they need, including the air column. 

​As the breeding eagle population began to turn around in the late 1980s, expansion began to move south along the Sandusky River drainage in 1993. It wasn’t until 1996 that the “Garlo Nest” in Seneca County was established as the first eagle nest not directly tied to the river or Lake Erie. Then, in 1998, nests in Milan and Nevada were located, and the population expansion began in earnest. While the origin of each bird seen at the Norwalk Reservoir can’t be verified, other data suggest many of them were birds hatched in the north-central region of Norwalk and the surrounding areas. Nest totals are skyrocketing, and nest success is placing many new birds in the population. A good feeding area, such as the reservoir, is going to attract these “local” birds. The safety of these winter eagle concentrations is important to the long-term survival of the species. 

It has taken major changes in Bald Eagle behavior to allow for this great recovery. Over the past several decades, eagles have begun nesting farther from water, closer to each other, and closer to people. Sure, things would have improved with the great human effort to bring them back from the brink, but the birds themselves played a major role as well. 

​So how does this tie into the gathering of dozens of eagles at the Norwalk Reservoir? This is an example of how conservation success comes with responsibility and the need for continued diligence. This region of Ohio, the north-central plain, does not have ideal woods or large natural water bodies, but it does have what the adapted Bald Eagle is looking for: bodies of water with good fish populations, small woodlots with large super-canopy trees, a relatively unobstructed air column, and some isolation from heavy human activity during critical times of the life cycle – elements that are vital requirements for eagles to thrive. We must work just as hard now as we did in the past to ensure that Bald Eagles continue to thrive in Ohio, and beyond. 

Local residents in the Norwalk area are doing just that, by actively monitoring eagle activity within the Emerson Wind facility footprint. Concentrations, though smaller in nature than those seen at the Norwalk Reservoir, are being documented weekly. One specific sighting involved at least five birds, all of breeding age, foraging in an open agriculture field. Two were fully adult-plumaged birds and could well have been the breeding pair from a  nearby nest or a nest yet to be discovered. The other birds were of three- and four-year-old plumages, fully capable of breeding, and potentially looking for a home territory in that area. They are the future expansion that is blossoming in this region. But this region could become a real and present danger to their future. 

​For those who would argue that climate change and/or fossil fuel extraction override the impact of the wind turbines, we ask that you consider LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. The Black Swamp Bird Observatory board and staff fully acknowledge the need to develop renewable energy. You do not see us battling projects away from the Lake Erie shoreline. But we do battle projects here, in this place where millions, potentially billions, of songbirds concentrate during spring and fall migration, where these birds rise and descend through the rotor-swept zone of these massive machines, where jaw-dropping numbers of Bald Eagles, Sandhill Cranes, Trumpeter and Tundra Swans, and waterfowl by the hundred of thousands depend on this habitat for survival. Where birds concentrate, massive turbines are not the right source of renewable energy. 

Conservation doesn’t end with habitat restoration. That’s where it begins. It would be irresponsible to allow wind turbines to destroy the air column habitat in an area that we now know is important to huge numbers of these magnificent birds. We must continue to protect these habitats and the wildlife they attract. Together, we must take a stand to ensure that our national symbol will remain for future generations to enjoy.  

What can you do? Speak to your elected officials. Vote for those who understand the value of protecting habitat and who support responsible siting of renewable energy. And document any eagle sightings in your area! 

By Annalise Bokenkamp
​​It’s been a little scary out in the world these past few years. It seems that every time we take a few steps forward, we take almost as many back. COVID, wildfires, a building in Chicago that killed 1,000 birds in one night…it can be hard to find things to be happy about. But it’s not all doom and gloom! In fact, we just celebrated a pretty important birthday a few weeks ago. December 28th, 2023, marked the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act! The passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 was an incredible milestone in U.S. conservation history, and, despite some flaws, it’s more than worthy of celebration. 

​The ESA is one of the most important wildlife conservation laws ever passed in this country. In a nutshell, the ESA “provides a framework to conserve and protect endangered and threatened species and their habitats both domestically and abroad.” While the ESA was preceded by several similar laws in 1966 and 1969, when it was proposed in its current form in 1973, it was the most major conservation law that our country had seen since the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) of 1918.

​It may be hard to believe, especially considering our current political and environmental state, but the ESA was passed almost unanimously in both the Senate and the House, with only a few representatives voting against it. Imagine that happening in support of conservation today! At the time, there was a sort of environmental awakening occurring, partially spurred by the obvious decline of some iconic species, such as the Bald Eagle. While a list of endangered animal species had been created in 1969, the ESA allowed that list to be expanded to include plants and invertebrates, as well, and the ESA also allowed critical habitat to be identified and set aside in order to help endangered species recover. 

​The current list of endangered species has about 1,600 names on it. And while the ESA has what’s really an amazing track record—about 63 species have recovered enough to be de-listed, and only about 32 species have gone extinct since 1973, most of which were either already extinct or too far gone by the time the list was created—it’s far from perfect.

​Endangered species are handled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which doesn’t have enough money to implement the ESA properly. Additionally, it can take up to ten years to officially list a species once it has been proposed because a thorough review of the data pertaining to the species’ status must be conducted. This means that, often, there aren’t enough preventative measures taken to keep a species from becoming endangered in the first place; the FWS can only react once the species has been listed. Furthermore, the ESA works far better on public lands than it does on private lands because it’s a lot easier for a private landowner to avoid the restrictions.

​Another controversial part of the ESA is that it allows for incidental take permits. This is where some of the debate over businesses like wind farms, oil companies, or commercial fishing comes in: Organizations can apply for permits that will allow them to conduct their business, even if it harms endangered species, as long as they don’t intend the harm, and any deaths (or “take”) are incidental to their actual aim. 

​The process of getting a permit isn’t exactly easy, though: the applicant must list what damage could occur from their business, what steps they’ll take to mitigate that damage, what alternative actions could be taken, and why those actions won’t work. If the organization meets these criteria and the relevant Secretary (of the Interior, of Commerce, or sometimes of Agriculture) approves, then they are issued with an incidental take permit and can carry on with their activities. Incidental take must be reported annually, and permits can be revoked if the conditions aren’t being met.

​In recent years, the ESA has faced several challenges with revisions being proposed in order to make it less restrictive, the argument being that the Act weakens the economy. These accusations against the Act are all the more disappointing considering the strong support that the ESA had when it was first initiated. Saving the environment has become a dividing factor when, in reality, it should be a goal that we’re all striving towards. 

​Without the protections afforded by the ESA, we wouldn’t have grizzly bears, we wouldn’t have alligators, we wouldn’t have Whooping Cranes or Kirtland’s Warblers, or even Bald Eagles. President Nixon, who signed the ESA into law, declared, “Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed.” 

​The ESA has protected much of that rich array over the last 50 years, and you can help, too, by supporting initiatives that are good for birds and for the environment. BSBO has a few suggestions for how you can help us help birds, and those suggestions can be found at Easy Ways for YOU to Support Conservation - BSBO and at CONSERVATION INITIATIVES - BWIAB. You can also vote for politicians who support eco-friendly strategies and write to your representatives to encourage them to consider important bird areas in their renewable energy policies. If you want even more suggestions on how to be bird-friendly (and I’m sure you do!), our friends at American Bird Conservancy have tips on how to get involved at abcbirds.org/get-involved.

If we all work together, maybe there will come a time when there are no names left on the endangered species list. But until then, raise a toast to the 50th anniversary of the ESA; here’s hoping it gets even better and stronger over the next 50!

​The migratory bird experts at Black Swamp Bird Observatory would like the public to know that the recent decision by the Ohio Supreme Court to uphold the Ohio Power Siting Board's (OSPB) granting of a Certificate of Environmental Compliance and Public Need to Firelands Wind, LLC for their Emerson Creek Wind Facility puts millions of migratory birds, including Bald Eagles, at risk. 
 
This decision will allow for the construction of up to 71 wind turbines in areas of Erie and Huron Counties. These turbines would be located directly in spring and fall migratory pathways of one of North America’s largest concentrations of birds and would threaten locally-nesting Bald Eagles.  

In spite of the court’s ruling, we maintain our position that Firelands Wind LLC. did not provide sufficient data to the OPSB for them to adequately determine the environmental impacts to these species. 

The Ohio Revised Code Section 4906.10 requires the OPSB to “…not grant a certificate for the construction, operation, and maintenance of a major utility facility, either as proposed or as modified by the board, unless it finds and determines the probable environmental impact …” and other considerations. 

The science clearly shows that the greatest risk presented by aerial structures such as wind turbines is to nocturnally-migrating birds. Yet, there were NO studies included in the Firelands Wind LLC application addressing the presence of nocturnally-migrating birds within the proposed site. Therefore, it was not possible for the OPSB to determine the risk to migrating birds and bats at the proposed location, hence this required criteria for certification was not met.     

Equally alarming is that the OPSB and the Ohio Supreme Court chose to dismiss the presence of Bald Eagle nests within the footprint of the proposed facility. These nests were documented by local residents and our own Bald Eagle expert, but the court chose to rely wholly on the hired consultant’s survey instead. 

During the hearing, the wind energy’s hired consultant made a blatant error, misidentifying a Bald Eagle on an active nest claiming it was a Red-tailed Hawk.  This nest is directly in the footprint of the proposed wind turbines. 

As a result of this refusal to acknowledge the error, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to render these sections of the project footprint as off-limits to turbines as defined under Category 1 of the Eagle Conservation Planning Document. This error moves the project into Category 2, allowing them to file for an “Eagle Take Permit.” This means they can legally kill Bald Eagles. 

There are organizations advocating for wind energy development that argue climate change is a greater threat to birds than wind turbines, so bird (and bat) deaths are an acceptable tradeoff. That argument is not valid in areas where migratory birds occur in such massive numbers, where grids of turbines could have a catastrophic impact.  

We agree that our nation must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to address global warming. But wind turbines are not the only renewable energy option available for cleaner energy production. In areas where massive numbers of birds migrate, such as the proposed site and the lakeshore region in general, there are alternative renewable energy options, specifically distributed solar, that can be utilized on our already developed infrastructure. 

Climate change should not be used as a reason to excuse negligent bird and bat mortalities.  

For further information contact Kimberly Kaufman, [email protected] or 419-898-4070 ​

​by Grant Sizemore, M.S., CWB®
Director of Invasive Species Programs
American Bird Conservancy

Cats. It’s a four-letter word in bird conservation.
 
Domestic cats (Felis catus) can make wonderful pets, but their presence roaming the environment is a nightmare for birds and birders alike. Cute and cuddly though they may be, cats are also fierce predators that can wipe out local bird populations and disrupt ecosystem dynamics. Ornithologists have been sounding the alarm about cats and their impacts for over a century. It’s time we take notice – and take action.
 
Magnitude of the Problem
Some cat owners claim that their cat only kills “a few birds here and there” and that such a low level of predation is trivial. The truth, however, is that even low levels of predation by cats can quickly add up. The number of pet cats in the United States has soared over the last 50 years and is now estimated at approximately 95 million (Fig. 1). The combined impact of so many introduced predators is massive:  In the United States, cats kill an estimated 2.4 billion birds every year, and cats are the top source of direct, human-caused bird mortality in the United States and Canada (Fig. 2).
 
This level of cat-attributed mortality is unnaturally high. Research led by North Carolina State University found that pet cats not only killed two- to five-times more prey than a wild predator but also existed at twice the density, resulting in four- to ten-times the impact in the local environment. And pet cats have distinct advantages over their wild counterparts, such as access to plentiful food, clean water, reliable shelter, and veterinary care. If a pet cat fails to make a kill, it doesn’t go hungry; it goes home. Thus, pet cats have been removed from the typical balance between predator and prey populations, enabling cats to continue to thrive and kill wildlife even when wildlife populations are low.
 
Sadly, the problem of cat predation of wildlife is not unique to North America, and nationwide estimates of cat-caused bird mortality in other countries are consistent with what has been observed in the United States and Canada. These cumulative impacts have resulted in tremendous and permanent losses of global biodiversity. Around the world, cats have contributed to the extinction of 63 species (including 40 bird species) and remain a principle threat to 367 species threatened with extinction.

Figure 1. Estimate of pet cat population in the United States (Lepczyk et al. 2022) 

​How Should We Manage Cats?
Cats are instinctive hunters that will attack and kill wildlife even when not hungry. Ever play with a cat using a feather toy or see a cat chase a ball of string? That is a predatory response. Sure, it’s play behavior, but the same behavior with a Wood Thrush or Eastern Bluebird can be fatal. This predatory drive, as well as incredible speed and agility, are among the attributes many of us admire in cats. But these qualities also highlight why we must manage our cats’ behavior. Luckily, there is a model for how to successfully manage cats, which can be easily summed up in a single sentence:
 
Treat cats like we treat dogs.
 
In most parts of the United States, it is illegal to allow pet dogs to roam off their owner’s property when not under a person’s direct control. This leash law is a relatively recent and rapidly embraced requirement for dogs, and the same requirement is needed for cats. Leash laws for cats would not only protect birds and other wildlife but also keep cats safe and eliminate risks to human health or other nuisances caused by trespassing cats. Rather than open the door and hope a pet cat will return home eventually, we should keep our pet cats indoors and safe while outdoors, whether by leash, in an enclosed cat patio (“catio”), or otherwise under a person’s supervision.
 
Change Is Possible
As a child growing up in Ohio, I believed that preventing our family’s cat from roaming outdoors would have been cruel. I loved nature and thought that a cat was equivalent to a natural predator, that it belonged outdoors, and that a cat needed to express its predatory instinct through hunting. Over time, however, I came to understand a few elemental facts about cats:  that they can live healthy, long lives while kept indoors; that there is an important distinction between native and invasive species; and that outdoor cats are contributing to precipitous declines in populations of our native birds and other wildlife. I also experienced the death of a beloved family pet cat that died prematurely after it was hit by a car. Today, I am not only the owner of an indoor cat but also run American Bird Conservancy’s Cats Indoors program. For me, change was possible.

​Figure 2. Comparison of direct sources of human-caused bird mortality (a) in the United States and Canada and (b) in the United States alone (Loss et al. 2015)

Be an Advocate in Your Community
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” - Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
 
Addressing these problems will require both individual behavior changes and community action. Change starts at home. If you are a cat owner, please, keep your cat indoors or safely under your supervision while outdoors. We can no longer afford to treat our cats like disposable pets that may – or may not – come home safely. Doing so is a risk to the cat, a death sentence for wildlife, and inconsiderate of any neighbors who would rather enjoy their property without your cat roaming all over it.
 
We also need community action by informed and persistent advocates who can help nudge everyone else along. A great place to start is with laws that protect pets and require responsible cat ownership practices, such as permanent identification (e.g., microchips), sterilization, vaccination, registration, and a leash law. You can get started today by identifying what the existing and missing laws are in your region, building a network of concerned local residents, and contacting elected officials to advocate for change. In some communities, changes to the law may be as simple as inserting “and cats” wherever similar laws exist for dogs.
 
This type of change is exactly what occurred several years ago in the Village of Oak Harbor, Ohio. A group of birders and community members reached out to the village’s officials and successfully advocated for better cat management. Their enacted ordinance established that cats were prohibited from running at large and prohibited nuisances, including urination and defecation on the property of others and concentrating cats (or other critters) by feeding cats outdoors.
 
Advocacy need not be a full-time job, and it doesn’t matter if you’re not a conservation professional. Laws are made by the people who show up. Interested in getting started? Take just a moment and send an email to your local elected officials to voice your concerns; it only takes a few clicks.
 
In Conclusion
For too long in this country, we have looked the other way and ignored the inconvenient realities of letting our cats roam outdoors. In light of recent science regarding bird declines, however, we can no longer afford inaction. Responsible cat management should be among our top priorities, not only because it will protect birds but also because it can keep cats and communities safe. It’s time to treat cats like we treat dogs.

Click HERE to learn more about this important issue.