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CHARLESTON -- It was a pleasant surprise for a local birder, Ron Bradley, when he headed out to the lake Tuesday after noticing something in the treeline he had not seen in his four decades or so spotting and recording bird sightings at Lake Charleston and surrounding areas.

Bald eagles -- a lot of bald eagles.

The local birder who has been tracking birds, namely bald eagles, in the area since the mid to late '70s said he saw more bald eagles than he has ever seen at the lake Tuesday.

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"It is very exciting," Bradley said.

Bradley, a birder who regularly sends bird sighting reports from Lake Charleston to an international bird database, said he sighted 34 bald eagles resting on the lakeside treeline, the largest population of the bird he has seen at the lake by a wide margin.

Two years ago, the birder saw the bald eagle population at 24, and populations were even more slight before that. But based on his sightings over the years, there might be a growing trend of the national bird at the lake.

This has been a trend Bradley has been seeing in the past 15 years, and he said Lake Charleston might become a bigger hub for bald eagle nestings in the future if area residents play their cards right.