Birds in the news: Bald eagles hatch at Tinicum

The bird-watchers suspected there were new eaglets in the neighborhood, but they knew for sure when two tiny, fluffy heads appeared.

The pair of bald eagles nesting at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum have hatched two chicks, officials confirmed Tuesday.

It's a history-making moment for the refuge, the nation's most urban, not to mention another chapter in a Philadelphia eagles drama that has riveted area birders and conservationists.

Eagles' nests are in all seven of the region's suburban counties, and the urban eagles have been touted as even more dramatic proof of the species' comeback.

In 2007, a pair of eagles were discovered nesting in the Navy Yard - the first in the city in two centuries. Their nest failed then, but the next year one eaglet survived.

By 2009, they were gone - perhaps, like generations of suburbanites, to New Jersey, officials figured.

But by then the city was seeing eagle action aplenty elsewhere. Another pair built a nest near the Pennypack Creek in the Northeast, and two young survived.

Yet another nest was under construction that year at the Heinz refuge in Tinicum, but those eagles were like bumbling newlyweds, producing a clumsy, rickety nest. And there were no eggs.

This year, both pairs returned, one to Pennypack, the other to Tinicum, and laid eggs.

By Tuesday, Frank Windfelder, the Delaware Valley Ornithological Society president who made daily checks of the Pennypack nest, suspected it had failed. The eggs were way past due to hatch.

He and Doug Gross, endangered-bird specialist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, figured the late snow was likely to blame.

Overall, eagles in both states have been nesting and breeding champs. Going from just a few nests in the 1980s, Pennsylvania had 174 nesting pairs last year and New Jersey 84.

Once headed for extinction, the bald eagle is regarded as one of the nation's great wildlife conservation stories.

Gross said the eagles' story was also one of environmental success. Eagles eat fish, so their presence here "speaks volumes about the recovery of the Delaware River" and other local waterways, he said.

While the locations of many nests are kept secret, the refuge in Tinicum has touted its eagles because they are on an island - close enough to see with binoculars but inaccessible enough to guard against people disturbing them.

Still, the birds can hardly escape the rush of traffic on nearby highways and the roar of jet engines at the airport. Nearby are an oil refinery and a Superfund site.

Refuge manager Gary Stolz said the eaglets were active. He has seen them stretching their tiny wings. Better yet, they're helping out.

The refuge has had an ongoing problem with carp, an invasive fish that has turned out to be an eaglet delicacy.

"Besides being the gorgeous, magnificent birds that they are," Stolz said, "they're helping us remove problem fish and restore native species."