Egals give eagles a party

By Amy Martin

Thousands follow the exploits of White Rock Lake’s celebrity bald eagles, Nick and Nora, along with their annual progeny, through social media. The couple brooded a record three chicks this year, and crowds gathered near their nest by the Stone Tables to watch the eaglets grow. 

The eagles were easy to find by the cadre of photographers with huge lenses at the nest as well as Sunset Bay between the Dreyfus Club hill and Winfrey Point, a favorite fishing locale, especially on weekends. The voluminous photos posted carried their exploits well beyond East Dallas. 

Fans followed the duo over the years through nest collapse, tragic chick loss and this year’s fledging mishap, with all three eaglets ending up on the ground, forcing the closure of parts of East Lawther until the young birds learned to fly. Followers became passionately attached to the avian family. 

As the eaglets matured, learned to fish and prepared to leave to forge their own adult lives this year, the urge arose to celebrate the joy and drama the eagle family brought to so many. 

“It had to be done,” said Eagle Fest Executive Producer MarySue Foster. In rapid order, a team formed and dubbed themselves the Egals. In under a month, the Egals created a very well-received festival.

Eagle Fest’s core was a two-hour show in the Bath House Cultural Center black-box theater called Eyes on the Eagles. Four top photographers — Alan Daniel, Nick DiGennaro, Frank Chris Giblin and Martha Taylor — shared the stories and techniques behind their best shots.

In what is sure to become an eagerly awaited tradition, Thomson created a Treetops & Talons retrospective featuring a variety of photographers chronicling Nick and Nora from mating and building their nest to successfully fledging their brood.

Eyes on the Eagles was livestreamed and remains online at WRLeagleTV on YouTube.

The bald-eagle photographer community was praised for their one-on-one education about the birds through personal interaction with curious observers, while serving as the first line of alarm and defense when thoughtless persons endangered the eaglets.

Dallas Parks & Recreation wildlife professionals Brett Johnson and Chris Morris shared the inside scoop on the eagles and their management, including federal bald eagle guidelines and their interactions with state and federal game wardens.

Morris was recently featured in The Dallas Morning News for his and Johnson’s successful Conservation Conversations, which were held weekly at the Stone Tables.

“The optimum way to ensure public cooperation with what we have to protect the bald eagles is education, and that’s best done directly,” Morris said.

Rounding out the event was a festive lobby with community tables from Dallas Audubon and Blackland Prairie Raptor Center, which rehabilitated the surviving eaglet after a storm blew down the nest in 2024.

Festival sponsor Wild Birds Unlimited: East Dallas won the crowd over with free bags of birdseed. The store offers bird and nature talks on most Saturdays.

White Rock Eagle Fest returns to the Bath House Cultural Center on Saturday July 10, 2027 for an expanded afternoon event. Eyes on the Eagles will feature a new round of photographers. Since it maxed out the theater seating, it will be presented twice. Park officials Johnson and Morris are hoped to reprise their Conservation Conversations as part of the fest.

“The Bath House was superb with the festival, helping out in every way,” Foster said. “We are eager to engage with their fabulous staff again and find more ways to work with their mission of community-enhancing creativity.”

“We’ve just skimmed the surface of ways to celebrate Nick and Nora,” Scott said. “With additional sponsors next year, we can provide more engagement such as craft activities for kids, a bird photography class, educational displays of the eagles’ history at the lake and much more.”

“We’ll also be actively fundraising at the event next year to create an eagle-support fund to aid Dallas Park & Recreation,” Scott added. 

Follow the fest at Facebook via the White Rock Eagle Fest page.