An Eagle Grows in Prescott

After eight months away from the mountains of northern Arizona, I was eager to visit Watson Woods as soon as I settled back in my summer home in Prescott in late May. The riparian preserve has always promised sightings of migratory birds like tanagers, grosbeaks, and occasionally even orioles. Just as exciting have been the nesting great horned owls that I have witnessed. However I wasn't expecting the posters along the park's trails alerting me to nesting bald eagles in the vicinity. After scouring the landscape over the course of two visits, I was thrilled to observe both a fledged eagle and at least one of its dedicated parents.

Several summers ago while kayaking, I watched a bald eagle as it perched within the Dells, an expansive range of boulders and rock formations that border the northern end of Granite Lake. Watson Woods lie at the southern end of the manmade lake, where Granite Creek normally fills the reservoir. (A dry winter has made that task especially difficult recently.) Apparently a pair of eagles attempted to nest in the woods last year but were unsuccessful, possibly due to human encroachment disturbing the birds. Thanks to the posted signs and better diligence on the part of hikers, this year's winter delivered a successful outcome with the eagles hatching and fledging one offspring.

I couldn't spy the nest from an observation site established along the Peavine Trail that borders Watson Woods to the east. Leafy sycamore and cottonwood trees surely obscured my early June view. In any case, the hatchling had already fledged and left the nest at least a month earlier so the eagle family's activities were elsewhere.

On my first visit, one of the bald eagle parents perched atop the leafless skeleton-like branches of a tree growing near the swampy expanse that would have been a shallow lake with more winter precipitation. Temporary orange mesh fencing stretched across any viable waterway to prevent kayakers or canoers from trying to paddle upriver and get too close to the nest. A regular visitor to the park pointed out the fledged eagle atop a power line pole far away on Highway 89 that runs along the west side of the recreation area.

I had much better luck seeing the fledgling on my second visit four days later. A parent eagle was almost imperceptible within the shadows of the high canopy of Watson Woods, close to where it nested over the previous several months. Meanwhile the juvenile perched out in the wide open swamp above red-winged blackbirds flying between their own nesting sites hidden within islands of thick reeds.

The young bald eagle sat atop the protruding, weathered trunk of a dead tree rising from the mud. The bird was sitting much closer to my viewpoint than its parent earlier in the week. The fledgling's feathers were mostly brown giving him the appearance at first glance of a golden eagle. However there was no need to note the differences; the nearby parents and months of attention guaranteed it was a bald. In fact a blue band around the bird's ankle was proof that at least the Arizona Fish and Game Department were monitoring this new addition to the state's eagle population. 2024 was a momentous year for the species in Arizona: ninety breeding pairs hatched a record ninety-six young. Hopefully 2025 will be even better.

With all the excitement over the bald eagles, I would be forgiven for forgetting about the other birds in and near Watson Woods. Summer tanagers, blue grosbeaks, western tanagers, wood ducks, and a lone spotted sandpiper comprised only a partial list of the success I had when I visited the preserve. Unsurprisingly, a new bald eagle easily stole the show.