Eaglets hatch in Eastlake

Bald eagles in Eastlake have successfully produced two eaglets.

The eaglets were spotted on April 5 by Willoughby-Eastlake School bus driver Charlie Anderson, who captured them on video.

The bald eagles, named Kindness and Justice, were first discovered building a nest in Eastlake’s Bruce Yee Park in October 2016.

People were coming from as far as Streetsboro to view the eagles and many had high hopes that the nesting eagles would produce eaglets.

Disappointment followed when they were not successful.

“When it didn’t happen last year, everyone was very disappointed,” Eastlake resident Dominic Raider said.

According to Raider, he had many naysayers telling him the reason was there were too many people at the park watching the eagles. But he believes the failure to produce eaglets may have been a result of the nest being too shallow and not having enough grass to insulate it.

“The eagles returned to the nesting site in January and started building a nest which is at least about two and half times the size it was last year and many have witnessed the eagles carrying a lot of grass to it this year,” Raider said.

Raider feels that this is probably one of the most positive things happening in the community right now.

“I would have to say it has brought the community together in a way that hasn’t happened in a long time and it’s going to get better while they grow and while they fledge and finally leave the nest,” Raider said.

The Eastlake Eagles have their own Facebook page, which has more than 3,500 people following them.

Raider said he has had many people asking what he plans on naming the eaglets, and these people also are offering suggestions. He questioned how to be fair to more than 3,500 who all want to name the birds and opted to go with the national standards used for naming eaglets throughout the country in monitored nests.

The national standard for naming is a letter designation for the first letter of the city that they are in and then in a numerical sequence based in order of when they were laid.

So, according to Raider, the Eastlake eaglets are named E-1 and E-2.

Anderson said he spent a lot of time at the nesting site capturing video of the eaglets to monitor and document their progress.

Anderson believes all the excitement over the eaglets is because many people did not think the bald eagles would return after they failed to reproduce last year. But since they have returned and successfully reproduced, there is hope they will continue to come back and nest each year.

SUBMITTED Eastlake eagles Kindness and Justice successfully hatched two eaglets in Bruce Yee Park.