An adult bald eagle flies over the shoreline of Lake Mead's Overton Arm on Jan. 11. Photo by Gary Thompson.
Bald eagles abound at Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
This year's annual mid-winter survey conducted by the National Park Service in conjunction with surveys nationwide documented 87 bald eagles at lakes Mead and Mohave, the highest on record and eight more than the previous record in 2002.
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"It's been a good year," said Dawn Fletcher, research assistant for the Public Lands Institute at the University of Nevada, which collaborated with the Park Service for the survey.
Bald eagles migrate to the sprawling, Southern Nevada reservoirs when winter hits lakes and their hunting grounds in the mountainous Northwest.
Not only does the bald eagle, a national icon, appear to be rebounding since 1963, when only 417 nesting pairs were known to exist in the contiguous 48 states, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to remove the bird from the list of threatened species.
Fletcher said the 87 recorded at lakes Mead and Mohave in addition to four unknown eagles and one golden eagle that were sighted during the survey could also indicate the sampling effort was more stringent this year.
High winds and bad weather conditions at the lakes hampered some of the survey teams during the national survey window from Jan. 3 through Jan. 17.
In some cases, teams were sent back out on the boating routes to gather more accurate data.
The survey at Willow Beach, on Lake Mohave was extended through Jan. 18, Fletcher said.
The bald eagle count during the survey window on the Overton Arm stretch of Lake Mead was rechecked as well after high winds cut short the effort on Jan. 11.
For further validation of the Overton Arm sightings, biologists went out there Tuesday and counted 43 bald eagles.
Last year, 67 bald eagles were counted on lakes Mead and Mohave, the same number as in 2005.
The tally was 60 in 2004; 68 in 2003; 79 in 2002, the previous record; and 60 in 2001.
Predating the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the bald eagle was declared an endangered species in 1967 for much of the United States except for areas north of the 40th parallel, especially Alaska.
About half of all bald eagles in the world thrive there.
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