With gear packed in bags and boats hitched up to Arizona Game and Fish Department pickup trucks, a dozen journalists and rangers headed east on Lake Mary Road in Flagstaff early in the morning on May 10 toward a boat launch on the north side of Upper Lake Mary.

Aboard two boats, down the lake the group went to take a half-mile hike to meet a flock of new friends: Two 5-week-old bald eaglets and their parents.

Kyle McCarty, AZGFD eagle field project coordinator, and Kenneth “Tuk” Jacobson, AZGFD bald eagle management coordinator, led the group into the forest to the eaglets.

Jacobson started with the AZGFD in 2002 and has partaken in 17 bald eagle seasons. He said playing his part in bald eagle conservation continues to excite him, which he demonstrated to the group.

Arriving at the base of a tall ponderosa pine tree, which McCarty said was 60 to 70 feet high, the two got down to business. Jacobson strapped himself into a harness and a helmet to his head, while McCarty attached suspension ropes to the tree. Then Jacobson ascended the tree toward the bald eagle nest.

When he reached the top of the tree the mother took off, squawking and circling from above. The father swooped in from the west and perched at a nearby tree, being just as vocal.

Jacobson fitted the two bald eaglets with booties, which covered their feet to prevent injuries to themselves, and hoods to their heads to obscure their vision and render them immobile.

Once the birds were secured, Jacobson placed them in a ventilated duffel bag, and the chicks took a slow descent into the arms of McCarty below for a show and tell, a physical and to be banded with metal anklets.

Jacobson and McCarty described the banding process and its purpose, starting with eagle breeding season.

“Some of our earliest birds will lay eggs in mid- to late December, but for the most part they are laying their eggs in January, February, hatching in March and April and fledging in June,” Jacobson said. “However, now that we’re getting more and more birds here at the higher elevation, these birds sometimes will lay eggs later. Some of our latest nesting pairs are fledging in July and sometimes in early to mid-August.”

Starting in January and throughout the breeding season, AZGFD will monitor which territories have adults at them, when they lay eggs, and once the eggs hatch, they will monitor the development of the nestlings.

AZGFD bands nestlings somewhere around 4 to 6 weeks of age. Banding is crucial in gathering demographic information and monitoring species reproduction.

“The reason for the banding is that it allows us to get all the demographic information on all the bald eagles in Arizona,” Jacobson said. “We will be able to use those bands in order to identify them in the future. We will know exactly who they are, where the came from, how old they are, how far from the original nest they end up breeding — basically that lifetime of information, we are able to get by reading those bands.”

According to McCarty, there are 87 nesting sites in Arizona, most of them located within a mile of water. To be able to monitor the sites more easily, he said AZGFD can visit all nesting sites in the state in two days by helicopter and typically do so about once a month.

Jacobson also added that he estimates that about a quarter to a third of the population at this point is at high elevation sites in Arizona like in Flagstaff, the Verde Valley and surrounding areas.

“The highest density of breeding birds is in the lower Salt and Verde rivers; however, they extend all the way up to the headwaters of the Verde all the way up to the Salt River,” he said.

With the bald eagle season well underway, Jacobson shed light on a few bandings that they have already conducted, some in the Verde Valley. Those eagles are almost ready to fledge the nest.

“We do have bandings that we perform in the Verde Valley,” he said. “Some of that is on private property and some of it’s on Forest Service land, but those birds have all been banded back in March or April, so we’re past that time. Most of those are about ready to fledge.”

Thus far in the season Jacobson said they have banded 30 to 35 chicks, but they will only be able to visit 15 to 20 nesting sites of the 87 for banding. But, looking ahead to the fledgling season, and reflecting on last year, Jacobson and McCarty expressed a similar sentiment in that they expect this year’s bald eagle season to be a good one.

McCarty said give or take they expect to fledge 76 nestlings taking their first flights.

“This year is a better year for both banding and fledging. We will end up with more in both of those categories,” McCarty said.

Back in Flagstaff, with two eaglets having made their safe landing, McCarty took measurements of the eagles’ beaks, wings, feet and took their weight, which helps to determine the health, age and sex of the birds.

To determine the sex of the bird, the feet and ankle are measured, females being larger than males.

McCarty weighed the two eaglets in around 6 and 7 pounds, and were determined to likely be male. Additionally, the two males had a bit of an age difference, which McCarty explained was because female bald eagles don’t typically lay multiple eggs at once. A female bald eagle will lay the first egg, incubate it and then the next egg will follow, and a female can lay one to three eggs in a season.

With their physicals complete, McCarty attached one silver band and blue band to each of the chicks’ ankles. The silver one is mandatory, and McCarty said the blue one is easier for AZGFD rangers to identify and read. He also said the bands should not be able to fall off.

“These are adult size bands, and their legs actually at this point are pretty close to what they are going to be full size. They kind of grow into their feet,” McCarty said.

Up above, Jacobson was still serving an important role. He checked what the flock had been eating, removed debris and checked for harmful materials and signs of disease.

With everything in order and the bands in place, the chicks took their ascent back home.

With the young bald eagles back in the nest, the AZGFD staff can move on to the next nest, to repeat their day’s work. In about five to seven weeks, the chicks will leave the nest, sticking around their territory for a few weeks before leaving to find their own territories — continuing the cycle of bald eagles.

Makenna Lepowsky can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 126, or email mlepowsky@larsonnewspapers.com