AES Ohio making Carillon Park safer for Bald Eagles

DAYTON — AES Ohio just took a step to make life safer for some of our flying friends.

Bald Eagles Orv and Willa are Downtown Dwellers, their nest sits in Carillon Park in Dayton.

These birds are used to people and our buildings and noise — but there is no way for them to know the danger of our electricity.

“We wanted to make it a little bit safer for their environment, so humans and the birds could coexist,” Holly Wiggins with AES Ohio said.

These added steps come just a few weeks before eaglets Skye and Kittyhawk should be taking their first flights.

They come a year after one of Orv and Willa’s other babies, Aviator, flew into electrical lines and died.

“It was terrible to realize that eagle had just fledged, and its wingspan could touch two wires at the same time, and be electrocuted,” Angie Seltzer of Oakwood said.

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So Wiggins said the company put up line diverters. They have reflective tape so the eagles can see the lines better.

“Hopefully so that they fly over above, around, those lines are a little bit too close for them to fly between,” Wiggins said.

The company also put rubber on the end of the lines and over top of six poles so that the birds won’t touch the wires.

“For the safety of the birds, for the safety of the people around, nobody wants anything to happen,” Wiggins said.

Especially not the people who enjoy watching the eagles most.

During the project, AES had two biologists and a representative from Glen Helen Raptor Center at Carillon Park to make sure the birds weren’t being disturbed.

Wiggins said the company was prepared to stop at any time but crews didn’t have to once because Orv, Willa and the babies didn’t seem to mind.

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