Great News for Bald Eagles

They're back and in numbers large enough that they soon be removed from the endangered list. The Interior Department is expected to remove them from the Endangered Species Act list as early as Thursday.

The bald eagle became the symbol of the US back in 1782, but was perceived as dangerous for 150 years. In the first half of the 1900s, close to 100,000 were killed in Alaska alone. Populations took another hit and probably worst of all during the time DDT was used to combat mosquitoes. A 1940 law prohibits the shooting, killing or otherwise disturbing of the bird.

According to an article in yesterday's Chicago Tribune, the number of bald eagles in the lower 40 is now at 10,000 from an all-time low of 417 nesting pairs in 1963. Minnesota has 1,312, the highest number in outside of Alaska. Illinois has 51-200 nesting paits as does North Carolina. Wisconsin has 801+ and surprisingly, so does Florida. I always thought of them as more of a cold weather bird.

A fun thing we do every January is go out to the Mississippi River to see them. Sometimes, we only see one, others as many as 200. This has gotten to be a major destination for tourists in the Midwest. They can also be seen on the Illinois and Wisconsin rivers.

Birdie Birdie in the Sky... --RoadDog