Shelby Township park new home to bald eagles

By LUKE LASTER

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    SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Michigan (WWJ) — Shelby Township welcomes a new, rather patriotic couple to one of their public parks.

Two American bald eagles have nested at Holland Ponds Park. Fortunately for the eagles, they’ve nested rather far from an area easily accessible by humans.

On Tuesday evening, Shelby Township announces guidelines to ensure the eagles’ safety during nesting. Federal guidelines require people and pets to stay 330-plus feet away from the nest. Drones are prohibited within 1,000 feet of the nesting area.

“The fact that our lower tier of our food chain is healthy enough for eagles that just says a lot,” says Elizabeth Shultz, a naturalist and nature center coordinator for Shelby Township Parks and Recreation.

Shultz says the eagles’ arrivals are a testament to how well the parks ecosystem has developed over the past several decades, making Holland Ponds Park a welcoming ecosystem for the birds.

“We hope to continue to see a little family show up. They can have one to three chicks show up each year, and if they’re successful together, they’ll keep returning to the same site and try again every year,” Shultz says.

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