Getting it Right; The Rebound of America's Bald Eagles (Part I)

 

It was the first week of December, 1995 and I was enjoying an unseasonably warm day fishing on Benton Creek; a small tributary of the Meramec River. Having caught and released several trout already , the morning seemed perfect. What I didn't know however is, it wasn't a perfect day, or rather to be more accurate, at that point I had yet to ever experience a perfect day while out fishing on a trout stream. That all changed when out of the corner of my eye, I saw the blur of a large bird fly past me to perch in a tree across the small stream. At first I didn't quit believe what I was seeing. Not more than 60 feet away from where I was wading in the small stream, a large mature bald eagle sat majestically perched. I'd read in magazines like The Missouri Conservationist about how many people made trips to the lock and dams along the Mississippi River to watch Wintering eagles in the state, but I'd never had the opportunity to ever see one in the wild before this day. I watched the beautiful bird with about the same type of fascination had it been a unicorn that had wondered to the stream for a drink. I stopped fishing to stare in awe of this beautiful creature. I had no camera, but can still vividly remember that one particular bird as if I had saw it yesterday, instead of 15 years ago now. Though the eagle flew away after about 5 minutes, I did see it one last time later in the day, though not from nearly as close as I had the first time. The odd thing about that day was, it was probably one of my best fishing days ever, though I rarely even think about the fishing itself. I caught and released several large trout that day, but it was the eagle that I made sure to tell everyone about in the weeks and months to come. Well considering I'm speaking about this eagle now, I guess you could even say years to come.

At that point, I didn't know that this wouldn't be the only time I would ever see an eagle in the wild. In fact, I had three other opportunities that Winter while out fishing the catch and release season at Meramec Spring Park, though each of these times it was a lone eagle riding thermals at high elevations.

It's the first week of December 2010 now, 15 years later, and I've just sifted through several files of captures I've taken for the select few to use in tonight's post. I'm not sure the exact number of photos I've taken of eagles, but I took a rough count last year and had over 1,100. I wish I could say they were all gems, but quite the contrary, the majority of them are not very good at all. From a photography standpoint, most photographers agree that birding, whether it be, trying to freeze a humming birds wings in motion as they sip nectar from a flower or feeder, to a cardinal flirting around from brush pile to brush pile just staying out of range to let you get a clear shot, almost as if they are playing a game, to the larger birds of prey, photographing birds in general can be a challenge.

For tonight's post however, photography will not be spoken about much. At least not the technical aspects of photography anyway. In the future, I'll be featuring many more posts, on eagles because I spend so much time pursing them with my camera. I haven't really been seriously concentrating on eagle photography for all that long, five years to be exact, but it wasn't until Spring of last year that I began to delete more than an out of focus shot here and there. Even now, there are photos that I will never delete, even though the quality may be poor. The first eagle I ever captured on camera was taken inside Montauk State Park. I hadn't even noticed it perched in the dead tree along the high bluff that you drive by when entering the park from Licking or Salem. Finally having a camera with a decent zoom range, though anyone who shoots wildlife would pretty much agree you can never have enough zoom range, I was able to get some shots of this lone eagle. Then I watched in fascination as a crow, dove out of the sky and proceeded to slam right into the large eagle. The crow made several more passes, each time making contact with the eagle. I had never seen anything like this before, but have had the opportunity to see this type of interaction between the two species numerous times since. The photos from that day in hindsight are not the highest quality, but to me it was a special moment, and because of that, I'd never consider deleting them.

For the rest of this post, I'm going to focus on the conversation side of things and discuss how such a magnificent creature that was in real danger of facing extirpation in the lower 48 states were nothing to change just a short time ago, is now making a rebound. There were two main factors that contributed to the decline of the bald eagle in the lower 48 states. The use of the pesticide DDT was the factor that effected the bird population the most. Though many realize that DDT was a problem, not as many people know that it wasn't that the DDT was deadly poison to the the adult birds, the DDT caused the shells of breeding birds to be so fragile that the simple weight of an adult eagle would crack the shells. The second  reason for the decline, and one I will definitely be focusing more on in the future due to the fact that it is still a problem, is eagles being shot and killed. Every year in Missouri, eagles are found that have been shot and killed, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that for every eagle found senselessly killed, that their is no doubt others that were never discovered. My brother-in-law, a Missouri conservation agent in Pulaski County, has had to deal with the problem of eagles being senselessly killed first hand when, two eagles were killed in the county he works, a few years ago.

The bald eagle has been rebounding well, and I will discuss many of the reasons why in my next post. I will also focus on what has been done to help the bald eagle in Missouri itself. Though tonight I've only discussed Missouri's Winter visitors, Missouri has bald eagles born that remain in the state year round. I will discuss how various zoos and organizations came together to make a viable population of bald eagles in Missouri a reality. And as always I will discuss my personal feelings on the direction this beautiful bird has taken, as well as share some spots where you should have a good chance of seeing these majestic birds yourself should you wish to. For anyone with the Winter blah's, I've found Eagles can make the Winter months seem a little less dreary. For now I will leave the information for the Missouri Conservation Department's Operation Game Thief hot line should anyone ever have the unfortunate experience of witnessing the illegal killing of an eagle, or any other illegally taken animal for that manner. You can remain anonymous and you may also ask if any reward is offered. The number is. 1-800-392-1111Until next time. Enjoy Missouri!

© Tommy Burgess