High atop the Redwoods, in front of Curtner Elementary School in Milpitas, a new couple has moved in.
Parent and photographer Stan Szeto couldn’t believe his eyes.
“I looked at my friend and said, ‘Was that a bald eagle?’ I’ve been here since ’81, and I’ve never seen a bald eagle in this area before,” Szeto said.
There are two of them -- seemingly a mated pair.
Szeto began snapping photos as they built a giant nest and began to protect it.
“It’s a very overwhelming feeling because many of us don’t get to see this kind of stuff upfront, really close up, only in the zoo.”
In the 1960s, a pesticide called DDT helped put bald eagles on the endangered species list. By 1980, experts say there were no bald eagle nests south of Shasta Lake.
Now, thanks to conservation efforts, biologists say they’re making a comeback in California. There are about 371 nesting sites statewide and about 20 ones in the Bay Area.
“It’s decades of comeback from the previous DDT days when they were in abundance, and they started dropping off because their eggs were too thin.”
Still, biologists with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife say we’re not out of the woods yet.
While the bald eagle is no longer on the federal endangered species list, it has yet to be removed from California’s.
“It’ll be a constant battle to make sure that the habitat remains, that we create more so that they’ll stay.”
The Milpita’s bald eagles moved in in January. Experts are guessing their eggs could hatch any day now.
In the meantime, bird watchers and Curtner students have been documenting every moment.
“One time, I got it by luck. I actually have a video of the eagles flying right over the kids as they were saying the Pledge of Allegiance,” Szeto said.
They say it’s moments like that, the kids won’t soon forget.
“For this little town, it’s amazing.”
And while school officials love the eagles, they don’t love the extra traffic bird watchers have brought in. they’re asking people to keep disruption on campus to a minimum.