No active bald eagle nesting near White Rock Lake

Bald eagle stock photo. Photo by Matthew Schwartz via Unsplash.

The bald eagles haven’t made a nest anywhere around White Rock Lake, an urban biologist with the City of Dallas said.

Though the avian couple has been seen flying around the area together, officials aren’t seeing evidence of active nesting.

“There was little to no courtship behavior exhibited this year,” urban biologist Brett Johnson said in an email.

These observations, along with the fact that it’s so late in the nesting season, have convinced wildlife experts that it’s safe to remove the fencing near Sunset Bay.

Johnson said in April that the eagles had been building a nest around Sunset Bay, but they quickly abandoned it. At least one eagle had been spotted at White Rock Lake last fall, signaling the birds’ return to our neighborhood.

The eagles, nicknamed Nick and Nora by some neighbors, first caught public attention in early 2022. Social media has been flooded with photos of the birds and questions about their status since then.

But it wasn’t just locals who were concerned about the birds’ welfare. Texas Monthly noticed and included Nick and Nora among the best things in our state.

The birds were building a nest at Lake Highlands Park at the beginning of last year. But in mid-February 2022, strong winds pushed the nest out of the tree. Wildlife experts found evidence of one egg at the time.

Protective barriers that had been set up to keep people away from the birds were removed in the spring, when it was clear the eagles weren’t actively nesting.