Guarding the nest

This just in from Tom MacDonald at a Philadelphia City Council hearing:

A Council committee has approved protections for a bald eagle’s nest in Northeast Philadelphia. The nest is located near the prison complex on the Delaware river in a part of Pennypack Park, and the protections are designed to keep the area off limits to people who would want to disturb the nest.  The protections go with federal and state protections for the birds who spend their winters in the large nest which is nestled in a tree.  The protections put a football sized area of the park off limits to bird watchers and poachers.

The eagles, which returned to Philadelphia in 2007 after years on the endangered species list, haven’t been seen in the park for two years.