It’s that time of year again — snow and slush fill the city streets; youngsters take to local hills with their sleds in tow and bald eagles begin to build their nests. With a little more than 70 bald eagle nests left in the state, officials are asking for help to identify new nest locations as the local population continues to rebound.
Since 1982 the Massachusetts Eagle Restoration Project has been working hard to bolster the bald eagle presence both in Worcester County and across Massachusetts. Bald eagles are known to mate for life and once a nest is built, the bird will return to the same nest, year after year.
“The population has been increasing ever since the 1980’s when conservation efforts really began,” said Andrew Vitz, state ornithologist with MassWildlife. “With that population increase, it becomes more of a challenge to monitor and track the birds, so we rely heavily on the help from the public to report their observations.”
Between December and February, bald eagles will collect nesting materials including large sticks to either make new nests or build up existing nests.