Carillon Park’s bald eagles to rebuild after weather destroys nest, egg

DAYTON — The wind and rain caused issues for many across the Miami Valley on Thursday, including at Carillon Park where bald eagles, Orv and Willa, had much of their nest destroyed. This comes one day after it was announced Willa had laid her first egg of the season.

Roger Garber, eagle enthusiast and photographer, told News Center 7′s Molly Koweek that he noticed something was off with Orv and Willa’s nest Thursday morning and went to check on it.

“I found that almost all of the nest was on the ground,” Garber said.

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Eagle enthusiasts and others community members were excited about the egg. Jim Weller, Carillon Park eagle expert, said he feels bad for Orv and Willa.

“How do you deal with a loss? You just had the egg yesterday, and then the nest fails today,” Weller said.

Weller said the eagles took time to survey they damage done.

“Willa was up in the nest, looking very bewildered. Orv was carrying a few sticks in, and even a clump of grass,” Weller said. “And then they just kind of stood there together, in what had been their nest, as if they were evaluating what had taken place, processing the whole thing, deciding what to do at this point.”

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Weller said at this point, their instincts will kick in and encourage them to rebuild and try to lay another egg by the end of March. He said it would likely even be in the same tree.

“It is disappointing because you try not to get emotionally attached to the eagles, but you know they worked hard to get to this point and now they’ve suffered a setback,” Weller said. “But life in the wild is wild and this is just one more page of their story.”

Garber said Orv and Willa are rebuilding and still have for a successful nesting this year.

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