The first bald eagles believed to be born wild in Southern California since the 1930s have been found in the middle of a shooting range near a popular Riverside County RV park.
The discovery of two eaglets is raising cautious hope among biologists who have seen nesting fail across the region because of lingering DDT pollution and encroaching development.
"This is the first time we've been able to prove it, the first time in Southern California that we've documented successful nesting. We're really excited," said biologist Kevin Brennan of the California Department of Fish and Game.
The striking double find is evidence of the national symbol's comeback from near extinction in the 1960s.
The shooting range, used in target practice by Lake Hemet Municipal Water District rangers, was closed in March after the nest was spotted halfway up a tall pine. "Keep Out" signs were then posted along a wide buffer. The annual "mountain men days" celebration, complete with musket shooting, was moved.
On Wednesday, state and federal biologists paddled out in a canoe and confirmed what locals thought they had seen: a pair of large, gawky brown eaglets out of the nest, hopping and taking short flights under their majestic parents' watchful eyes.
"We went out early this morning just past sunrise," Brennan said. "All of a sudden, just a few yards from us, it was sitting there. I said, 'Oh my God, it's a fledgling.' " They paddled back to pick up another biologist, and when they returned, they noticed a second eaglet a few feet away.
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Keeping Fingers Crossed
If the 9-week-old eaglets survive, federal and state wildlife officials say, they will have begun repopulating the southern end of their historical nesting range before bald eagles were all but wiped out in California by coastal development and the manufacture and use of the pesticide DDT.
The farthest south that successful nests have been found in California since recovery efforts began is in central Santa Barbara County, said Ron Jurek, who coordinates bald eagle recovery tracking statewide for the Department of Fish and Game.
The eagles have also successfully bred in the Sierra, said Brad Bortner, chief of the Division of Migratory Birds and Habitat Programs for the Pacific region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The bald eagle's stronghold is now along the salmon-rich northwest coast of North America, with about 70,000 -- half the world's population -- in Alaska, and 20,000 in British Columbia.
