SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — The National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown was among those affected by Saturday’s thunderstorms. The storm claimed the lives of 3 eaglets who were hatched in March.
“One thing you don’t want to be in a storm is 90 feet off the ground in a sycamore tree on a failing branch.” NCTC’s Dr. Mark Madison said. “It was actually captured on film; the nest started to rock. The mother Eagle tried to protect them. It was pretty shocking footage. At one point the nest literally broke off the branch and flipped upside down. The mother and father eagle were able to fly away but the eaglets, sadly, were too young to fly.”
“The nest was huge,” Madison added. “A grown man could stand in it. Eagles have been adding to it for over two decades.”
Hope still remains in Shepherdstown the eagle couple will remain in the area, potentially even on the same tree.
“The branch the old nest was on was already failing.” Madison said. “Five years ago, we put some sticks and limbs on a lower, smaller branch as a useful suggestion. Just this year they built another nest about 15 feet below the one that was destroyed, and it survived the storm.”
“The Eagles have landed there.” Maddison added. “We have high hopes they’ll lay eggs next year. It’s a good nest, great location, overlooking the Potomac. Makes me sound like a real estate developer.”
Madison added even though it is part of the job, it’s always tough for a biologist to witness an incident like this.
‘Most of our agency are biologists trained as scientists. And scientists are told to be cold and objective.” Madison said. “But the people that come into wildlife biology do so because they love animals and there’s no way you can’t be upset seeing this.”
The full interview is available here: spotify.com
Story by Luke Wiggs