Dublin Internet star halts construction (Ireland)

[Donna]

DUBLIN -- A former viral video star has soared her way back into the limelight.

Bella, the city's resident golden eagle, is up to her old tactics, halting construction on the east side of town until her offspring fly the coop.

KB Home is the most recent developer that will have to delay construction near Bella's abode until the nesting period ends. The homebuilder received approval Feb. 8 from the Dublin planning commission to build 44 single-family homes on the eastern edge of town and to complete a major roadway.

However, work on about half of the homes and the completion of the road must wait until after July 1, when biologists monitoring Bella expect her fledglings to strike out on their own, said Linda Maurer, the city's economic development manager.

As part of a development agreement with Pinn Brothers Fine Homes, who originally received approval to build in the area, the company agreed to pay $30,000 for a solar-powered web camera on top of a water tank for the city to monitor Bella. More importantly the agreement also limited the noise and construction around her abode during nesting season.

"We wrote it into every agreement," said former Dublin Janet Lockhart about development on the east end of town. "Bella came first. She was here first and had a history that we didn't want to lose."

The webcam was an instant hit, garnering over a 1,000 hits the first two months it went live in 2005. Five years after launching, interest remains with 108 visits and 301 page views since September 15, 2010.

Bella has called Dublin home since at least 1989 when Colleen Lenihan, a raptor biologist, began monitoring the bird of prey.

The golden eagle calls a pair of trees out on the eastern edge of town her home and has given birth to 22 fledglings with at least three different mates since 1989,

Lenihan said that southern Alameda County, in particular the Livermore Valley, has one of the most dense populations of golden eagles in the world because of the oak woodlands and an abundance of ground squirrels and rabbits.

The birds have an average wingspan of seven feet and nest between the beginning of January to the beginning of July, laying one to three eggs.

"Over the years, development has been staged slow enough that (Bella and family) have adapted to what is going on," Lenihan said. "There is a conservation area out there and their territory is still open space and they have the resources to breed, so it has been about keeping out human disturbance."

Dublin leaders are vigilant about making sure Bella isn't disturbed. Besides construction limits, a conservation area has been set up surrounding Bella's nesting home that also is designed to protect the California tiger salamander and California red-legged frog.

Lenihan and her partner Scott Stender monitor Bella through the webcam and make routine trips to Dublin to check on her in person. The duo said Bella usually starts nesting around Valentine's Day.

The fact that Bella has continued to return to the area for so long is a rare feat, said Gary Bogue, Bay Area News Group columnist and wildlife expert.

"In this day and age, so many things could go wrong," Bogue said. "The (birds) don't hang around all year long, and in particular in that area with those windmills in Altamont that wipe out some of the golden eagles."

But Bella continues to beat the odds and the developers.

"Development will always happen and we are pleased that we have an area where work can be done," Lockhart said. "But some things are a little bit bigger than land, and that would be the animals and people that inhabit them."

The Oakland Tribune