By JACOB OGLES
jogles@news-press.com
Originally posted on November 27, 2007
Cape Coral officials say eagles nested near The Golf Club property may be nesting.
Rick Sosnowski, the comprehensive planning team coordinator who handles development restrictions involving bald eagles, said the city has now seen a pair of bald eagles on an unused cell phone tower on more than one occasion.
On Monday, city officials saw the birds in what may have been an “incubating posture.”
“That means they may have laid eggs there,” he said.
Officials cannot climb to the nest and check out of fear of harassing the birds and disrupting a nest, he said. The postures of the birds are how biologists determine if the eagles have eggs.
“When you have a new nest, it is particularly hard to determine if its an incubating posture,” Sosnowski said. “You don’t know how deep it is, and you don’t know just how it would appear if it were just in the nest from ground level.”
Community Development Director Hector Rivera wrote in a memo to a city council member that the eagles were first officially spotted by city officials on Nov. 8, though numerous reports from citizens had been received before then.
The presence of the eagles could affect any prospective development on The Golf Club, as construction has certain restrictions if within 1,100 feet of an eagle’s nest.
