Birders Flock To Eagle Festival In South Jersey

NEW JERSEY (CBS) -- On Saturday,  birders are flocking to Mauricetown in South Jersey for the annual eagle festival. And this year, there's something to celebrate.

New Jersey had one pair of bald eagles through the 70's and 80's. Now, there are 172 nests with 150 of them with eggs. Kathy Clark is a biologist with the Endangered Species program of the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife.

"I think that's a real tribute that we still have some really great wildlife habitat in New Jersey and the kinda of habitats that eagles love, which is the open waters full of fish and water fowl," she said.

Clark was actually instrumental in turning around the bald eagle population. She joined the state's endangered species program after grad school, when she and others had to steal a fragile egg from a nest, replace it with a fake egg, and incubate the original egg in a Maryland lab.