The Edmonton Waste Management Centre is looking a little more natural these days, thanks to some new tenants with talons.
Two bald eagles have decided the landfill is a suitable place to raise a family.
“We first started noticing eagles a couple of years ago,” waste services project engineer Amy Ling said in an interview with CBC News on Friday.
“They’ve been flying around our site, but in December of last year they started building a nest. And then in March we had a hunch that there was some baby eagles on the way.”
The big nest the eagles have built is high in a tree along the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. (City of Edmonton)
That hunch proved to be accurate.
“Last week, we had two little baby eaglets hatch,” said Ling. “Bald eagles are protected provincially and federally, so we are working with our regulators very closely to ensure we are giving them their space and that they are happy and healthy.”
Fortunately the eagle family has chosen to nest in a tree close to the river, away from any major industrial activity.
‘Love going to check on them’
“It hasn’t had an impact on operations so far,” said Ling. “We do have a biologist that we’ve hired who is monitoring the eagles behaviour, and they let us know if they think they’re stressed out.
“We do have setback distances that we need to stay away from them, both for our own safety and for the eagles’ safety.”
The birds aren’t ruffling any feathers among staff members but have been the focus of attention.
“Love going to check on them and hear about them growing, and we’re really excited about the next stage,” said Ling.
That next stage will likely be see the eaglets learning to fly before they head out on their own.
“Bald eagles will stick around, the babies will leave the nest in the fall though,” said Ling.
If the goal is to turn the area into a more natural area this is certainly a good sign, and the birds of prey may even help with pest control.
“It is an old landfill, so there are rodents,” Ling said. “But also lots of the fish in the river that they can eat.”
If you want to catch a glimpse of the birds you better have an eagle eye, the area where they’re nesting is not accessible to the public. They can only be viewed from a distance with the assistance of binoculars, a telescope or a zoom lens.