On the Trail of a Bald Eagle in Glendale

I've seen a bald eagle in Glendale before. In fact the last time I visited the city's recharge ponds in the spring, it was easy to spot one perched on a utility pole shortly after I started walking along the complex's eastern border. But during last week's visit, I amazingly encountered one of the raptors before I had even parked my car.

Lying a mile east of the gigantic football stadium that the Arizona Cardinals call home, the Glendale recharge ponds are formally called the New River - Agua Fria Underground Water Storage Project (NAUSP). Within a grid of six basins, water is collected for seepage and storage into a natural underground aquifer. This precious resource arrives via canals from the Salt and Verde Rivers, and also from the Colorado River via the Central Arizona Project. Additionally, sewer water arrives from the cities of Glendale and Peoria after being treated. The Salt River Project utility manages this vast engineering endeavor.

The water in these basins creates 125 acres of temporary ponds that harbor a variety of plant and fish species that sustain water-dwelling fowl, including birds of prey like the bald eagle. The teeming wildlife in this habitat is a paradox in this busy urban corridor which, in addition to the football stadium, is surrounded by freeways, power lines, an airport, bike paths, a landfill, and all forms of human encroachment. Just recently Glendale even added a brand new road, Ball Park Boulevard, with four lanes of zipping traffic on the western and northern borders of the complex.

An actual natural waterway, the New River, abuts the site also, so I suspect that many migratory birds reach the ponds via that waterway and the nearby Agua Fria River. At least one riparian zone along the New River at the project's western edge - now separated by Ball Park Boulevard - is in a pristine state, hosting cottonwood and mesquite trees along with grassy reeds. And some farms and small ranches haven't been tempted just yet by the money of lucrative development, so other birds are attracted to the adjacent fields and open spaces.

Headed to the southeast corner of the water complex last week, I noticed an exceptionally large bird of prey in a cottonwood tree edging one these ranches. I quickly identified the bird as a bald eagle.

I approached the eagle slowly, opening my sunroof as I got closer. Situated almost directly below the alert bird, I snapped numerous photographs through the open roof. It didn't take long to irritate the eagle; it soon flew away in the direction of the denser grove of cottonwood trees at New River.

Excited by my quick encounter, I carried on with my planned visit to the recharge ponds. I parked where I normally do, at the southeast corner of the site, where I investigated the first containment area on foot. Unlike on most recent visits, the pond was filled with shallow water and populated with a number of water birds including black-necked stilts, killdeer, coots, and a kind of yellowlegs. Rough-winged swallows flew in fast, wide arcs overhead.

But my mind was on that bald eagle, and the direction where it flew. Maybe it had a nest in the denser canopy of the riparian area on the west side of the property. After only fifteen minutes investigating the pond, I headed toward New River.

Along the way interestingly, the bald eagle was in the same tree it had absconded from shortly before. I immediately opened my sunroof as I approached the location and captured several additional close-up shots of the magnificent bird a mere thirty feet away. Of course I was annoying it with my proximity and attention so the eagle soon flew away in the direction of the woods where I was already headed.

I parked on a bridge over an open channel that conducts water run-off to the mostly-dry New River and downriver to the Agua Fria, also usually dry. These natural waterways lead to the Gila River and eventually the Colorado River. Before crossing brand-new Ball Park Boulevard to investigate the grove of cottonwood trees, I took note of the water birds on the nearby southwest retention pond.

A massive flock was zigzagging over the body of water. I could hear squeaky wheezes emanating from the shape-shifting cloud. The definitive sounds and my photographs helped me identify the birds as American wigeons, migratory birds that winter in this part of Arizona.

I made it to the raised bank looking into the canopy of trees at New River but I didn't see any sign of a bald eagle or its nest. Several noises like rustling grass and a towhee's toots were more notable than any avian sightings because the cottonwoods were at least fifty feet away. However just as I began to turn around to head back to my car, a large bird glided out of the woods from the general area I was just scanning. It was the bald eagle!

The raptor flew low, in the direction of where I had already located it twice before. Intrigued - maybe obsessed? - by the bird's consistency I once again followed the eagle. But first I paused at the southwest recharge pond to gaze at a flock of buffleheads, the largest number of these seasonal visitors I've ever seen gathered in one place.

Rather than driving, I walked toward the tree that had proved so lucky for capturing shots of the bald eagle. It only took seconds for me to make out the outline of the bird on its favorite perch of the morning. However I must have posed more of a threat on foot than in a 4Runner because the bird took off again, out over the nearest pond and beyond. I have a good hunch where it was headed but I finally got the message it was time to leave the eagle in peace.