I drove my son to the auto repair shop so he could check on the status of his car. I dropped him off at the garage bay and continued toward a parking spot facing the road.

As I approached the spot, I noticed a large bird perched in a leafless tree overlooking the road and the small swamp on the other side. Assuming it was a hawk, I narrowed down the options to red-tailed hawk and red-shouldered hawk. I would have immediately jumped to red-tailed hawk, but red-shouldered hawks seem to be thriving throughout much of New England. In the brief glance I got of the bird up to this point, I noticed it was rather large, which further confirmed my suspicion that it was a red-tailed hawk.

When I finally parked, I discovered it was neither. It was much larger than even a red-tailed hawk. It was a bald eagle, right there along the road by the auto repair shop.

I was excited to see the magnificent bird there, but not altogether surprised. I have seen a few bald eagles perched in trees along the side of a road before. A few years ago, I spotted an immature bald eagle on a snag (standing dead tree) adjacent to a busy shopping mall. Thousands of cars and people on one side, a bald eagle on the other.

I recall receiving an email from a reader noting that he had seen a bald eagle perched on a light pole in the parking lot of a big-box store.

Yes, the bald eagle is a true conservation success story, and the population is soaring. As the population proliferates, these types of sightings are bound to become more commonplace. Even so, I’m quite certain I’ll never get tired of seeing bald eagles.

Bald eagles started making a strong comeback from dangerously low numbers a few decades ago, but the years since 2009 have been boom years for the proud symbol of the United States. Studies and reports show that between 2009 and 2019, the number of bald eagle nesting pairs increased from roughly 30,000 nesting pairs to about 72,000. Individual bald eagle sightings spiked even more sharply from 72,000 to 317,000.

Bald eagles, which were down to 500 nesting pairs in the 1960s, were virtually extirpated from New England states, except Maine, by the 1970s. Pesticide use, habitat loss and hunting were the main culprits of the decline. Due to conservation efforts, bald eagles now nest in all 48 contiguous states.

I recall in the late 1990s when I worked in the sports department of The Keene Sentinel, photographer Steve Hooper and I visited Nubanusit Lake in Hancock acting on a tip that a bald eagle pair was making a nest. We later met staff from Harris Center for Conservation Education to confirm the pair was indeed making a nest. There was great excitement around the news because it was the first bald eagle pair to nest in the area in decades.

Fast forward to 2023 and New Hampshire has close to 100 nesting pairs scattered throughout the state, but mostly in the Lakes Region and along the Connecticut River. It’s an inspiring success story, similar to the osprey and peregrine falcon.

The U.S. population of bald eagles improved to the point where they were delisted from the Endangered Species Act in 2007. They are still protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.  

I can count on seeing bald eagles on my camping trips to northern New Hampshire these days. That wasn’t always the case. I prefer my sightings to be while I’m canoeing on a remote lake, but I’ll take the ones at the auto repair shop too.