18 Jul 2022 Osprey & Bald Eagle Monitoring is underway!
Posted at 20:54h
in News
Back at the end of June, we completed our first round of Osprey and Bald Eagle monitoring on all three arms of Kootenay Lake! FoKLSS staff monitored the North Arm and were later joined by volunteers to monitor the South and West Arms. 
We had some fantastic weather and got a good look at some nesting Osprey and Bald Eagles. Here are some observations from the data collected this far:
- Visited 54 Osprey nests, 32 of which appeared to be in use by a breeding pair
- We observed 4 new Osprey nests on the main lake and 23 Osprey new nests on the West Arm
- We observed 5 new Bald Eagle nests located on the main lake and 15 new nests on the West Arm
- We saw many incubating female Ospreys, indicating that the breeding season on Kootenay Lake is well underway
- We suspect Osprey breeding may have begun slightly later this year compared to 2021 due to the cold wet spring. No hatchings were seen during this visit, but this time last year we did see some.
Our second survey is taking place in August where we will count fledglings to get a sense of how productive Ospreys and Bald Eagles were this year on Kootenay Lake.
Want to help monitor the reproductive success of Ospreys and Bald Eagles around Kootenay Lake? Become a volunteer here!
Learn more about our Osprey & Bald Eagle monitoring program here.
Photo right: Juvenile Bald Eagle by J. Burnie
