Bald eagles love the Sandusky-Port Clinton area

PORT CLINTON — If you want to use your eagle eye to spot the country's national symbol, you're in luck: You live in a place that fits the bill. The Sandusky Bay area is Ohio's most popular place to live if you're a bald eagle. A new census shows that while bald eagles are thriving all across Ohio, they continue to do especially well in the Register's primary coverage area, according to a news release issued by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources: • Ottawa County, with 112 nests, is Ohio's top bald eagle county. • It's followed by Sandusky County with 61 nests, good for second most in Ohio. • Next up, in third place, is Erie County with 40 nests. • Coming in fourth place: Seneca County with 36 nests. The 964 active bald eagle nests found in the 2025 citizen scientist survey compares with 707 found in a 2020 census, so the bird is continuing to do well. Moreover, the bald eagle in Ohio is a big conservation success story. The birds were considered endangered at one point. The state had only four nesting pairs in 1979. But bald eagles were removed from the federal endangered species list in 2007 and from Ohio's list in 2012. "The bald eagle is one of Ohio's great conservation success stories," said Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. "The eagle's remarkable comeback over the last few decades, both in Ohio and nationwide, proves how much we can accomplish when we conserve and protect habitat." State biologists explain that bald eagles like fish, so they prefer to live in places with wetlands, big rivers and big lakes. The Sandusky-Port Clinton-Fremont area gives the eagles what they want. Bald eagles are protected by state and federal law. You can't kill them, and you can't sell or possess them or their eggs. You also can't mess with their nests. State officials advise staying 100 yards away from a bald eagle nest. Bald eagles will abandon their eggs if they don't feel safe, state biologists say, so leave the nests alone.