2 bald eagles get cozy with nest at golf course

ALAMEDA

Dot in eye, missing nail on talon suggest one bird hatched from Milpitas school nest

A pair of bald eagles interact along the shoreline of San Leandro Bay on Feb. 7 in Alameda. Birdwatchers were looking for shoreline rails when someone spotted the eagles hunting near Arrowhead Marsh. ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAHPER

A bald eagle soars along the shoreline of San Leandro Bay on Feb. 7 in Alameda. Birdwatchers say one of the birds is likely Big Jr., who hatched in March 2019. ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Birdwatchers gather along Island Drive looking for bald eagles on Feb. 12 in Alameda. There are at least four other known nests in the Bay Area. ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A pair of bald eagles nest in a eucalyptus tree in Alameda on Jan. 20. Two nonprofits are monitoring the nest. PHOTO BY RICK LEWIS

A pair of bald eagles on a tower at the Corica Park Golf Course on Sunday in Alameda. The pair have built a nest in a eucalyptus tree. ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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By Dylan Bouscher and Aric Crabb

Staff writers

Love is in the air for at least two new winged residents at an Alameda golf course: A pair of bald eagles first spotted during a king tide in December are now creating a nest in a eucalyptus tree there.

And if a small black dot in the lower part of her right eye and a missing nail in the middle talon of her right foot are any indication, the female is likely Big Jr., who hatched about March 2019 in a nest at Curtner Elementary School in Milpitas.

“Most birds don’t have tattoos, right? They’re not wearing a monocle,” said Rick Lewis, a monitor who has been escorting the public to view the nest at Corica Park on Mondays on behalf of the Golden Gate Audubon Society.

Lewis was at Arrowhead Marsh, a 50-acre wetland habitat within Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline with a group of birders and shutterbugs looking for rails, a secretive bird that’s flushed out of shoreline brush it usually hides in during king tides. Suddenly, somebody called attention to one of the eagles.

“Somebody said ‘Hey look, there’s a bald eagle!’ … so I turn around, somewhat dubious, and lo and behold, in the distance, where this person was pointing, there was a bald eagle. So we’re all excited, and it was only in the air for a short bit — it looked like it was hunting ducks — and it was off in the distance so we didn’t get a really good look at it, but long enough to recognize,” Lewis said. “So, pretty exciting, we looked at it, I took a few pictures, did the king tide thing, went home and that’s when I continued to hear accounts of people continuing to see the bald eagles.”

On a morning walk near the golf course six days later, one of the birds zoomed overhead and passed Lewis, directly into the pair’s under-construction nest.

“It was really serendipity, very lucky,” Lewis said. “I was not anticipating at all to find a nest. There was no — I had not read anything, nobody had given an account that they were nesting here, nobody had surmised that they were nesting here. So it was just fait accompli, right? There it is, it’s not only here — darn it, there’s a nest! It was really exciting.”

He said that while it’s unusual for the birds to choose an urban, populated setting to build a nest, it could be the familiarity of a school building that drew Big Jr. to the setting — Earhart Elementary School is down the street.

Golden Gate Audubon Society and The Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve committee are working together to conserve and monitor the nest, which Lewis said the birds are likely to return to year after year if they’re not disturbed.

There are at least four other known and monitored bald eagle nests in the Bay Area: One at Curtner Elementary in Milpitas, another at Ardenwood Historic Farm in Fremont and two at Del Valle and Lake Chabot regional parks. Eagles typically breed in late winter and early spring, laying one to three eggs for an approximately 35-day incubation period.

Register for bird walks to see the nest at Goldengateaudubon.org and navigate to the “Upcoming” list of field trips, found under the Bird With Us tab on the homepage.

Lewis said the organization is responding to rising demand and continuing the tours.

Registration for the next walk is Feb. 27.