DALLAS — The two bald eagles at White Rock Lake have a new nest.
North Texans flocked to the northeast corner of the lake Friday, hoping to catch a glimpse of the two eagles.
“It’s exciting because we can see it from right here, which is right in our neighborhood,” Eliot Shavin said.
Brexton Collins came to White Rock Lake Friday with his friend, Steve Chapman.
“You can see their heads bobbing up and down,” Collins, who was watching the eagles on the Dallas Academy livestream, said. “So we were like, we gotta get over here and see that!”
Texas Parks and Wildlife told WFAA the bald eagles took over an abandoned hawk’s nest not far from their old nest, which was closer to Buckner Blvd. and destroyed by wind two weeks ago.
“Hawks put a lot of time and energy building their nest and they leave. And then eagles see this foundation of a nest, so they'll start building up on it,” DFW Urban Wildlife biologist Sam Kieschnick said.
The first nest sat on dead limbs, Kieschnick said. While the new one is sitting on “relatively weak branches,” the tree itself is alive, he added.
“We think that this is a young couple of eagles and this is their first nesting experience. And as it goes with us, we all learn from our failures and from our errors. So we learn from these things and I think the eagles have done that, too,” Kieschnick said.
Watching and tracking the eagles has created a close knit community of bird-watchers.
“Even though it was heartbreaking that the first nest fell (and) there was an egg in the nest that didn't survive – it was very traumatic for everyone -- but the eagles didn't give up and nature is resilient. And that's something to be celebrated,” Kieschnick said.