[HN Gopher] Bald eagles are thriving again after near extinction
___________________________________________________________________
Bald eagles are thriving again after near extinction
Author : geox
Score : 119 points
Date : 2025-02-23 23:36 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newsweek.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newsweek.com)
| bilsbie wrote:
| For now. They won't last long at these co2 levels.
| lukevp wrote:
| I'd be the first to speak out against climate change, but I'm
| not sure I understand how co2 is relevant? The current ambient
| co2 in the world ranges around 400-500 ppm. It can easily get
| into the thousands indoors and that doesn't impact birds. It
| seems like we're a long way off from ambient co2 causing an
| issue with wild birds?
| devilbunny wrote:
| My dog sleeps next to my thighs. She's small, but under a
| sheet, a blanket, and a comforter, the CO2 has to be through
| the roof. Nevertheless she hears my alarm before I do and at
| 5:25 is wide awake.
| noselasd wrote:
| Nature will do fine with increased co2, bar arctic/antartic
| turmoil, it'll not be a big problem. The far bigger problem is
| that places where nature can even be gets occupied by humans or
| their farms and logging.
| lovich wrote:
| The two that hang out on my property seem to have raised
| several chicks to adulthood successfully the past 4 years I've
| watched them.
|
| It seems like they can adapt if they're just left alone
| Kon-Peki wrote:
| https://news.wttw.com/2025/02/17/bird-flu-claims-bald-
| eagle-...
|
| Maybe
| lukevp wrote:
| Here in Oregon we have a lot of them, but it never gets old
| seeing them! We usually see at least a couple on our way to the
| coast from Portland. Earlier this week, my wife and I saw a
| mating pair fly high over this field by our house and spiral down
| towards the ground, holding talons. It was amazing, they are huge
| incredible birds. I'm so glad to live somewhere that has lots of
| public land and habitat preservation so my family can enjoy the
| clean air, water, skies, and trees, as can all of the wildlife we
| have.
| bredren wrote:
| There is a big nest above the Oaks Bottom wetland. It is
| strange to have bald eagles hanging out as a normal part of the
| area.
| iammiles wrote:
| Adding to this thread: I see them a ton around Cathedral Park
| in St Johns.
| bliteben wrote:
| In Astoria, Oregon on Wireless road you can find nearly 100 in
| a tree. I'm not sure why they are in such high numbers, but you
| can often see them scavenging fields where seafood waste
| (shells) are dumped.
| tombert wrote:
| I'm jealous, I think I've only ever seen one at a zoo twenty
| years ago. I think they're extremely cool looking birds, I
| would love to see one in the wild, but they don't appear to
| hang out much in NYC.
| technothrasher wrote:
| We only have about 76 breeding pairs here in Massachusetts,
| but I do see a few fly over my house every once in a while.
| detourdog wrote:
| We have a few in the North East corner of Massachusetts.
| Anechoic wrote:
| Same here in western MA, there's a nest along the
| Connecticut River in West Springfield.
| observationist wrote:
| They're comically obnoxious - they have annoying screeches,
| almost like a squeaky straw. If they get acclimated to
| people, will steal food and anything that remotely looks like
| food. They're smart, in the way that most big birds are
| smart, but rarely sociable and curious like ravens.
|
| Kinda majestic and noble looking, though.
| mlhpdx wrote:
| I love the sound, and we live with it pretty much every day
| as they roost in our fir trees while hunting. We're up on a
| hill about a mile from the Willamette River and they seem
| to be able to see when snacks appear (no idea really, but
| they fly with purpose in that direction).
|
| The really scary birds are the occasional Falcons that move
| so fast and so low I'm both startled and confused when they
| buzz the yard.
| observationist wrote:
| They remind me of a badly played "Cuica" instrument, hah
| - maybe my siblings traumatized me with squeaky straws in
| lids or something, but I find eagle screeches to be
| obnoxious.
| tombert wrote:
| Them not being sociable makes them kind of more mysterious
| and therefore kind of more majestic as well.
|
| It doesn't surprise me that they're smart. It feels like
| the insult "bird brain" is decidedly a pretty bad insult,
| because birds aren't stupid.
| pfdietz wrote:
| > they have annoying screeches, almost like a squeaky straw
|
| The majestic call you hear in ads with bald eagles is
| actually that of the red-tailed hawk.
| bongodongobob wrote:
| Red tailed hawks are also unbelievably obnoxious. I had
| one nest in my yard a couple years back and they drove me
| nuts.
| THroaway225 wrote:
| They like suburban Winnipeg. They'll circle dogs for a while
| before giving up and flying away.
| SonicScrub wrote:
| > before giving up and flying away.
|
| Careful! That's not always a given!
| jandrewrogers wrote:
| Plenty of them in Seattle too, I've seen them flying over
| downtown many times. They like to sit in the trees at Discovery
| Park.
| darknavi wrote:
| We have a bloat slip on Lake Sammamish and there is a family
| living in one of the giant trees near the slip. Marymoor park
| + the lake seem like a great space for them to hunt and live.
| dluan wrote:
| There's a few that used to live on one of the 520 pylons and
| would watch the morning bridge traffic go by everyday, but
| then one was hit and killed by a bus windshield.
| howard941 wrote:
| Lots of them in west central Florida, at least around the golf
| courses and wooded areas.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| We have them on Long Island (New York). There's a pair that
| live in Centerport (a fairly well-to-do neighborhood, nearby),
| that even have their own Facebook group.
|
| They eat eels. _Lots_ of eels.
|
| I understand they are fairly numerous, up the Hudson Valley.
| YesBox wrote:
| Siting in central Vermont confirmed this winter :). Pretty cool
| seeing one, as it was a first for me. Took me a second to believe
| what I was seeing.
| quesera wrote:
| The first time I saw a bald eagle was about a mile's walk into
| the woods (no paths), in a marshy area in a northeastern state
| forest.
|
| We surprised each other, and all I could do is stare, stunned,
| while s/he took flight about 20 yards in front of me.
|
| Now granted, I was about 15 and had grown up with all the
| iconography and mythology, but I felt instantly that that bird
| earned it all. S/he was enormous and beautiful and majestic in
| a way that I had never seen before in a wild animal. (And
| rarely since!)
|
| Made me think that, to the great majority of species, humans
| are just an unwelcome out-of-control infestation on the planet.
| Yes, we have some redeeming qualities, but they are not often
| on display to these animals. :)
| PeterWhittaker wrote:
| Canada says "you're welcome". (Quite some time ago US and
| Canadian researchers worked to trap and transport eagles from
| northern Canada, where there will still several thousand; those
| birds helped restore the population in the contiguous states.)
|
| I've not been able to find sources to indicate the bird's
| conservation status in Canada at that time. As far as I can tell,
| every mention of the birds being on the verge of extinction
| should always be followed by "in the US".
| jandrewrogers wrote:
| They were not even endangered in the US but in the _contiguous_
| US. There was always a large population in Alaska such that
| people were paid to cull them.
|
| Many "endangered" animals in the US are not endangered in the
| sense of extinction but in the sense that they are leaving some
| part of their native range. They are often "endangered in
| $LOCALE", not endangered generally.
| odyssey7 wrote:
| I feel that eagles that can fly large distances are in a
| different category from land animals, which have greater
| pressures to adapt their lineages to particular geographic
| ranges, to specialize within the species.
|
| For example, the Florida Panther:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_panther
| willturman wrote:
| This is so unbelievably lazy.
|
| You even say this in reference to Eagles, which are a
| migratory species whose range crosses hemispheres, as if the
| contiguous United States is some small aside on that path.
|
| "Don't worry about the regional extinction of a migratory
| apex predator because they're conveniently thriving in
| dumpsters behind the McDonalds in a town in Alaska."
| shutupnerd0000 wrote:
| Can you blame them though? Big Macs are quite tasty
| ajross wrote:
| > Many "endangered" animals in the US are not endangered in
| the sense of extinction but in the sense that they are
| leaving some part of their native range.
|
| I'm reading this and not understanding where you're going
| with it. I mean, I get the libertarian bent of the argument:
| the government is overreaching in an attempt to preserve that
| which is unimportant, or something to that effect.
|
| But what is the _policy_ aim here? You want eagles to be
| removed from the endangered species list[1] for... what? So
| farmers can use DDT again? (The article points out,
| correctly, that DDT is believed to be the single largest
| cause of their decline). That seems poorly grounded.
|
| Honestly mostly this just sounds like whining to me.
|
| [1] Which already happened. In 1995! They remained Threatened
| until 2007 when even that category was removed. In point of
| fact the success of the bald eagle recovery seems like an
| argument _in favor_ of species-based conservation efforts. Do
| you really disagree?
| eschulz wrote:
| I pretty much see them on a daily basis in the Driftless Area of
| Wisconsin and Illinois these days, which is great because I don't
| think I had one sighting for the first 30 or so years of my life.
| apercu wrote:
| I'm South of Madison. Love the Driftless!
| Cyclone_ wrote:
| Growing up in Minnesota I would see them quite a bit. We have a
| lot of lakes, so it's an environment where you would see a lot of
| them.
| tartuffe78 wrote:
| Living in Michigan I used to only see them rarely up north, now I
| see them on my drive home from work in the middle of the state!
| Exoristos wrote:
| When I was a kid growing up in eastern Kentucky, I went on a hike
| through isolated country about five or ten miles from home. Was
| way up on what was basically a small mountain and saw a bald
| eagle circle overhead. Naturally, I told everybody, but they
| thought I was lying or an idiot. Now nobody would have any reason
| to doubt it. Amazing to witness such a comeback in our own
| lifetimes!
| apercu wrote:
| In 90's I saw bald eagles for the first time (I mostly grew up in
| DFW, TX) in the Mississippi Valley between WI and Iowa, later in
| backbone ridge state park, where the valleys are so steep the
| eagles are flying below you when you're on a spur. It was amazing
| to me because, as a child in the 70's and 80's we were always
| hearing about DDT and endangered eagles. Fast forward ~30 years
| from the early 90's (after a long stint in Canada) I've moved to
| semi-rural Wisconsin and I see eagles monthly, and closeup (I see
| red-tail hawks daily, Cooper hawks weekly - one killed one of my
| chickens last fall), pheasants weekly and sandhill cranes for
| months every year.
|
| Seems like the conservation efforts for eagles actually worked,
| and I can't be more pleased.
|
| (Hey, I like birds, ok? I even kept a log with my partner for a
| while of all the birds we were able to identify at our Bir
| feeders and on walks).
| bigiain wrote:
| Kinda sad and ironic that the symbol of American freedom is
| thriving right now...
| dejv wrote:
| Similar story in Europe with white tailed eagles, which are quite
| similar in size. They were extinct in my area for maybe 60 years
| and recently returned and even started to hatch.
| pbmango wrote:
| Growing up in Buffalo New York, I only once as a kid saw one
| flying while on a camping trip in a remote state park. Now, you
| see one almost every day on the coastline of lake Erie. They are
| so much bigger than other birds that you will notice even if you
| are not on the lookout. Their scale is astounding compared to sea
| gulls.
|
| They have also come back to the Potomac and Washington DC which
| is nice.
| voakbasda wrote:
| Bald eagles occasionally visit my farm. On multiple occasions, I
| have seen them swoop in and carry off a duck, leaving almost no
| evidence. They eventually eat my entire flock, so I periodically
| need to restock.
|
| Even when I catch them in the act, I cannot yell at them for it,
| because that would be "hazing". They are federally prohibited
| from any sort of interference, so they have learned that there is
| a consequence-free dine-and-dash buffet here.
|
| These experiences enlightened me as to why some farmers prefer
| the "3S" approach to predator management: Shoot, Shovel, and Shut
| up.
| eYrKEC2 wrote:
| A similar thing happens in Greece where if antiquities are
| found on your property , you want to properly bury it
| immediately or risk going bankrupt on your building project.
| Not sure on the details, but this is what my Greek boss told me
| once.
| 7thaccount wrote:
| There are some bald eagle cams where you can watch the baby
| eagles in the nests. They eat a lot of fish.
| busyant wrote:
| Saw 3 of them today in central Connecticut. Never gets old.
|
| About 2 years ago, a juvenile baldie landed on a pier 4.0 meters
| from me (according to my camera sensor).
|
| https://photos.app.goo.gl/6cUhtJggrVn5KakX6
|
| I thought the dang thing was gonna rip me to shreds. But it just
| looked me over for about 10 seconds and then rendezvoused with an
| older eagle over the Connecticut River.
| temporallobe wrote:
| Can confirm. I see them almost every day in central Florida. I
| live near a so-called bird sanctuary and wildlife preserve so
| maybe that accounts for sone if it.
| macintux wrote:
| Why "so-called"?
| tshaddox wrote:
| This is good news, although the only "news" here seems to be the
| removal from the New Jersey endangered species list.
|
| The success of conservation efforts were already being widely
| lauded in the mid-1990s in Missouri (and deliberately emphasized
| in the public school curriculum), and bald eagles were common
| sights particularly near the Missouri or Mississippi River.
| joecool1029 wrote:
| Who knows they might go back on the list, bird flu has been bad
| in NJ and the first place I saw regular nesting pairs of bald
| eagles is now closed off to the public because of it:
| https://merrillcreek.com/
|
| Some more general news on it killing them:
| https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/interactive/2024/bald...
| brandall10 wrote:
| Moved to Denver at the beginning of the pandemic. One of my
| coolest memories that first winter was bald eagle watching at
| Barr Lake. Thought we'd be lucky to see one or two, but actually
| stumbled on about a dozen, all mating pairs. The nests were
| ridiculous, probably about 5-6 feet in diameter and several feet
| tall.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| They are technically classified as "Least Concern" now; at the
| bottom of the chart right alongside seagulls and pigeons. Not
| even threatened anymore. As well as the fact that being an apex
| predator means countless other (less charismatic) species and
| ecosystems had to have been saved to make it happen. What an
| accomplishment.
| inasio wrote:
| I remember going on a boat ride to a hotsprings cove on the
| Pacific side of Vancouver island, and seeing 50+ bald eagles in a
| small bay flying around a fishing boat. At the time I still
| thought bald eagles were endangered. They're pretty common in
| Vancouver, especially near the water, but on occasion I've also
| seen very large groups flying over land
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-02-25 23:00 UTC)