Tennessee has up to 140 pairs of nesting bald eagles

The bald eagle population is soaring in Tennessee after nearly disappearing 30 years ago.
There are now between 130 and 140 nesting pairs of the raptors in Tennessee, according to a state bird expert.
“It’s a miraculous recovery,’’ Scott Somershoe, state ornithologist, says. “They were nearly extinct and now there’s nearly 10,000 nests (in the country).’’
The first nesting pair of bald eagles to be found in Tennessee in 22 years was discovered in 1983 at Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee’s northwestern corner.
Eagle pairs have become common at Reelfoot and at Land Between the Lakes recreation area in Tennessee and Kentucky. One pair is nesting at Shiloh National Military Park but this year’s chicks recently fell from the nest and died.
Tennessee wildlife officials are considering following the federal government’s lead and removing the bald eagle from the endangered list.
The birds were removed from the Department of the Interior’s Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants in June 2007. They are still protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
In March, a wounded bald eagle was discovered about five miles north of Tiptonville in the Reelfoot Lake area. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have posted a reward of up to $3,300 for information leading to conviction. The eagle survived, but a veterinarian had to amputate part of the bird’s right wing.
A bald eagle was shot on the Cumberland Plateau in March 2009 and survived and another was found dead a month earlier in Norris Lake in East Tennessee. It was determined it died of lead poisoning after eating something that had been killed with lead shot.
Since most adult eagles are believed to return to the area where they first flew, wildlife officials release birds born in captivity in areas where they hope the eagles will remain or return. In Tennessee, 326 bald eagles have been released since 1980.
Wildlife officials use a release program borrowed from falconry called hacking.
Eaglets are placed in towers in remote area, kept in an enclosure and fed by workers who remain out of their sight. At 12 weeks of age, the young eagles are released.
The American Eagle Foundation, based at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, has released dozens of eagles, many in the Great Smoky Mountains area.
The organization’s Web site states the foundation operates the largest bald eagle breeding facility in the world.