Eagles

Bald Eagles

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The Tulsa Audubon Society has been a leader in the protection of Bald Eagles for over 30 years. An Eagle Sanctuary is owned and maintained by the Society for the protection of wintering Bald Eagles at Lake Keystone. TAS also hosts annual Eagle Days to provide the public an opportunity to observe feeding Bald Eagles below Keystone Dam in January

The Nature Conservancy has established a Bald Eagle Preserve, consisting of registry agreements with private landowners, along the Arkansas River from Keystone Lake to Muskogee.

The George M. Sutton Avian Research Center has reintroduced a breeding population of Bald Eagles into Oklahoma and other southern states.

Tulsa Audubon has published a brochure about the Bald Eagle in Oklahoma, available here in a web-page format or viewable as a PDF file.

The History of Bald Eagles On The Arkansas River

When the Bald Eagle was formally adopted as our national emblem in 1782, there were possibly as many as 20,000 nesting pairs in what is now the United States. By the late 1800s, however, the Bald Eagle's U.S. breeding range had shrunk to only Alaska, some Great Lakes states and Florida. The population decline was the result of a number of reasons, including human encroachment and habitat destruction, killing birds for trophies, killing them because they were thought to be predators, and in later years, the widespread use of DDT which caused their egg shells to thin and not hatch. In 1967 the Bald Eagle was declared an endangered species.

Eagle Sanctuary Approximately 30 years ago the Tulsa Audubon Society realized that some Bald Eagles were wintering around reservoirs built in the 1940s and 1950s in northeastern Oklahoma. The eagles were especially attracted to the areas below dams where it was easy to feed upon the injured fish coming through power turbines. They also determined that the eagles around Keystone Lake, just west of Tulsa, preferred to roost in one particular cove. After negotiations with the owner of the land surrounding the cove, Tulsa Audubon raised the money to purchase 105 acres to protect the site. This land is still owned by the Tulsa Audubon Society. Each winter, weekly, from November 1 to April 1, Tulsa Audubon volunteers count the roosting birds.

The eagle preserve, itself, is NOT open to the public. Eagles are sensitive to human intrusion and their nesting success depends on keeping people from getting to close. Our volunteers use a blind, constructed with the help of the Tulsa District of the Corps of Engineers, located a safe distance from the roost. The viewing area below the dam is open to the public, easily accessible and a good spot to see the eagles feeding or sitting in the trees along the river, without disturbing nesting activity.

Click Here for an article from the April 4, 1979 issue of the Tulsa World about the eagle roost campaign, and the late Jack Miller, who donated a painting of a Bald Eagle over Keystone Lake.

Eagle Days Tulsa Audubon also realized that this natural resource was generally unknown to the local population and commenced a program, each winter at Keystone Lake, to educate the public and give them an opportunity to view the birds. This was probably the first organized eagle-watching program in the state of Oklahoma. In the 1980s this evolved into two days each January when guided tours, on buses sponsored by the Tulsa World and the First National Bank, were given to the better viewing sites down the river. Later, The Corps of Engineers constructed improved parking and viewing areas below Keystone Dam, on the north side of the river. The Eagle Watch became what it is today: two weekend days each January when Tulsa Audubon members furnish spotting scopes, binoculars if necessary, written material on the eagles of Oklahoma and answer questions regarding eagles. Although much of our local population is now familiar with the wintering Bald Eagles in Oklahoma, we still get between 500 and 1,000 visitors in a two hour period for these programs, many from other states.

Another big boost to the eagles in eastern Oklahoma was a program of the George M. Sutton Avian Center in Bartlesville. Between 1985 and 1990 they released 90 eaglets obtained from Florida with a mass release of 59 birds in 1990. This program is now showing dramatic results with from no active nests in 1985 to over 60 today, fledging more than 100 eaglets during this period.

Eagle viewing has become popular since Tulsa Audubon started its public program 30 years ago. Today, there are more than 20 parks, refuges and bird watching organizations that have tours and programs each winter for this purpose.

Visit our public programs in January of each year below Keystone Dam on the Arkansas River just west of Tulsa. Dates and times are published each year in the Tulsa World and the annual Event Guide of Tulsa Audubon, or attend the monthly meetings open to the public the third Tuesday of each month.