Winter is eagle season in Connecticut. Our resident Bald Eagles are building nests. Migrants are gathering near waterways in search of food. There's even a chance that a Golden Eagle might pass through.

And we have opportunities through EcoTravel and at Shepaug Dam for you to get outside and see them!

But we also want to hear your stories.

In recent years, Bald Eagles have constructed nests not just in remote locations but also near I-95 in New Haven, in Milford near our Coastal Center, and on Norwalk Harbor. As the population grows, other eagles will be looking for nesting locations too. So send your nesting observations to communicationsdir@ctaudubon.org.

We will forward the information to state conservation officials, and if we get enough sightings we'll plot them on a map of the state.

We also put an eagle sighting post on our Facebook page and we invite you to participate. We hope it turns into a thread of observations, anecdotes, and photos.

So far, our Norwalk eagle correspondent, James Ferrante, reports a pair roosting occasionally on Hoyts Island in Norwalk Harbor, and a juvenile hanging out on the Five Mile River in Rowayton. Christopher Bousquet, our Milford eagle correspondent, tells us that he has seen the Bald Eagles that nested near the Coastal Center only five or six times but he's holding out hope that they've found another site nearby.

Brian Hess of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection reports that there were 51 active Bald Eagle territories in the state during the 2016 nesting season; 58 chicks hatched. The 2016 mid-winter survey turned up 121 Bald Eagles, down from 146 and 143 the two previous year, probably because of the milder weather.

That's a lot of eagles and it makes for good viewing. We hope you get out and enjoy them!

- See more at: http://www.ctaudubon.org/#sthash.nleIUYlg.zJkpP1sT.dpuf