Bald eagle productivity observations over portions of coastal Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana from January 2011 through April 2011

This report contains bald eagle productivity data, and provides additional context for the posted dataset, including information about the collection, analysis, and organization of the data. Characteristics of this dataset include the following: • This dataset focuses on data related to bald eagle productivity collected as part of the cooperative NRDA process. • This dataset includes data collected cooperatively with the Trustees. • Before posting, extensive work was done independently by BP contractors to verify some aspects of the posted data (e.g., positional coordinates and field data). The focus of this data posting is bald eagle productivity observations made by observers working from aircraft flying over portions of coastal Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. Visual observations of 471 bald eagle nests were made from January 2011 through April 2011 under a work plan titled Pre-assessment Work Plan for Determining Injury to Bald Eagles from the Deepwater Horizon (MC 252) Oil Spill (Bird Study #9, Part 2). This work was conducted as part of NRDA studies agreed to and executed cooperatively by the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), other Trustees, and BP. This dataset includes bald eagle nest and productivity data visually collected by observers working from aircraft. The types of data included are observation date, nest ID and location, nest descriptors, adult activity, and productivity observations (egg counts, chick counts, and chick ages). • In the Area of Potential Impact (API, as defined by the work plan), observations were made from January 2011 through April 2011. Nine of the nests were observed in April. • In the Reference Area (as defined by the work plan), observations were made from December 2010 through April 2011. Thirty-four of the nests were observed in April. In addition to the temporal variation noted above, sampling variations may exist across observers, methods, and locations.