THE CAMP PERRY EAGLES

Ohio Rifle and Pistol Association member Mark Witt was able to do something on May 30 that perhaps no other shooter has been able to do at Camp Perry. He didn't shoot a record score in a highpower match, his achievement wasn't even on the range. Mark Witt is an officer of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and on May 30 he successfully collected two young bald eagles from their nest seventy feet high in a cottonwood at Camp Perry, brought them down to be observed and tagged and returned them to their nest, none the worse for wear.



Bald eagles have been a regular sight on Camp Perry since the mid 1970s when the nesting site was one of only four known in the state of Ohio. Today there are 87 known nests in the state in over thirty counties. The eagles are returning. Any regular participant of the National Matches has experience the cease-fires caused by bald eagles flying over the impact zone. And the shooters pay them no mind and endure the cease-fire as long as the bird needs to fish. So it was fitting, that a shooter who has stood on the firing line at Camp Perry was the person to bring them down.

Once the eagles reached the ground a group of 150 spectators gathered around them and the Ohio DNR officers whose job it was to measure, weigh and examine the young brown headed birds who won't receive their signature white head feathers until around age six. Among the crowd were also Governor of Ohio Bob Taft and State Representative Robert Latta, who would have the honor of banding the eagles. Representative Latta, himself is a shooter who has been attending the National Matches and coming to Camp Perry nearly his whole life. It seems these eagles were destined to be under the care of Camp Perry shooters!

The examination and banding of the birds is a process vital to state DNR biologists in the study and understanding of these symbols of America. The data gained is invaluable to the continued trend of putting more eagles back in the sky. "It's like a human going to the doctor's office," one DNR officer said, "they may not like it, but it doesn't harm them and does them good."

After the eagles were banded by the Governor and Representative Latta, they were returned to their nest under the watchful eye of one of their parents, who sat nearby in a tall dead tree to oversee the proceedings. Once more, they were given over to Mark Witt who placed them back in their nest and rappelled back down, within an hour the parents returned to the nest and resumed their normal activities.

So the next time you are enduring a cease-fire at Camp Perry due to eagles in the impact zone, take a moment to think that the eagles gliding over Lake Erie searching for supper, may indeed have been handled and helped by one of your fellow shooters.

For more information about bald eagles in Ohio, go to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources webpage at www.ohiodnr.com.