Kirkland fireworks show moved to avoid frightening baby eaglets

Courtesy Eastside Audubon



KIRKLAND - The eagles nesting in Kirkland's Heritage Park will still have a bird's eye view of this July 4th fireworks, but at a much safer location.  Thanks to a request by the Eastside Aubudon, the organizers of the Celebrate Kirkland! festivities have agreed to move the fireworks barge farther away from the nest, the Seattle Times reported.    The barge will now be moved about 350 yards southwest of nest, which houses the eagles.

The nest, which contains the two adults and two baby eaglets, sits in a Douglas fir tree on the western edge of Heritage Park, the paper said.  This is the third year that adult eagle pair have called the nest home, the Times reported.  Andy McCormack, president of Eastside Audubon, said that he and other members will be monitor the birds during the fireworks show, because of the possibility that one of the eaglets could be started by the noise and lights and accidentally fall or knock its sibling from the next, the paper reported.

Eastside Aubudon's Mary Brisson said that the decision to move the fireworks barge was "an example of how things go when they go right."