Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

fws.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 246 posts

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#91

Post by duxup »

I grew up living along the Missouri River. Eagles of any sort were a rare site as a child. It was a big deal when we saw one or one visited the area for a while. The small town paper would even publish photos and stories when was nearby near for a while.

After nearly two decades I left the area and sightings of bald eagles were just run of the mill every day events like any other bird.

I live elsewhere now and a couple pairs of bald eagles live in a urban / suburban area near me seemingly quite healthy and happy.

It has been a pretty amazing change.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#92

Post by boulos »

alistairSH wrote: post #79
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #63

We have them on Long Island. In fact, a nesting pair has been in a nearby town for a few years. They have their own Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/baldeaglesofcenterportNY Centerport is a fairly well-off community, so they have some powerful allies (and you see some expen$ive camera gear). Their call is...unimpressive. I call it "The call of the sick gull." The classic "eagle" call is actually a redt…

Their call is...unimpressive. I call it "The call of the sick gull." I had to Google it. So true. Like a song-bird crossed with nails-on-chalkboard. And the red-tail, which I have heard locally, is the stuff of (mouse/snake) nightmares.

Movies often dub a redtail hawk scream over bald eagle footage!

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=156187...

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#93

Post by gcheong »

sethammons wrote: post #19
wiredfool wrote: post #6

Bald Eagles are HUGE. You don't realize it until one drops out of a tree near you and flies off. Either that or you see them feeding on road kill deer.

Wait til you see Golden Eagles :) We have a mating pair of Balds and it is fun to watch their young get bigger and then take off. Every year around the same time, we have a giant Golden that cruises around the lake and forest. The first time I saw it, I couldn't believe how big it was. Like, over a 7ft wingspan. I realize Balds are close, but this Golden one is a monster.

There's some video on YouTube of Golden Eagles pulling young mountain goats off mountain cliffs to kill for food. On the flip-side, seeing our "majestic" Baldies scavenging for food at an Alaskan trash dump like a common seagull was a bit incongruous with my image of them until that point as well.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#94

Post by duxup »

tomatotomato37 wrote: post #4

I find it amusing the article had to clarify the lower 48 states. In the majority of the United States bald eagles are a rare and majestic sight. In Alaska they are on par with seagulls.

They're common in a lot of areas now even in the lower 48.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#95

Post by subsubzero »

In California I have never seen a bald eagle(besides a zoo), and I have lived here almost 90% of my life, both north and south. Having lived in Colorado for a few years they were seen somewhat regularly, maybe once every 2 months or so, One day I saw three in one day and was blown away.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#96

Post by farnsworth »

kebman wrote: post #87

Man, I really want to see one some day! Made me think of this story telling of an eagle allegedly swooping down and snatching a toddler right from the ground on the island Leka in Norway. She was apparently playing in a blanket, so the talons didn't scratch her, but she was carried almost two kilometres away. The ordeal triggered a search party that eventually found her almost 200 metres up the mountain side, unschat…

Move to Seattle, I used to see one almost every day on my commute where it would hang out above the 520 bridge, presumably fishing in Lake Washington.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#97

Post by nightski »

tomatotomato37 wrote: post #4

I find it amusing the article had to clarify the lower 48 states. In the majority of the United States bald eagles are a rare and majestic sight. In Alaska they are on par with seagulls.

We see them all over in Minnesota/North Dakota.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#98

Post by abakker »

bliteben wrote: post #65
NDizzle wrote: post #14

I just moved back to Arkansas after being in California for 20 years. Here's a picture a local took along AR highway 59. 7 bald eagles hanging out. https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/155912289_4304... I have some good shots of one eating breakfast behind my house as well. Kind of gory though.

I go birding in a spot near Astoria, Oregon and have counted over 70 individual bald eagles from one spot, some trees will have 20 alone perched in them.

I was going to say a similar thing. On one drive from SF to Spokane I was driving through central Oregon in the winter. There must have been a bald eagle on every other fence post for 10 miles at one point. counted over 100 birds of prey, most of them bald eagles.

Re: America’s bald eagle population continues to soar

#99

Post by slowhand09 »

ogre_codes wrote: post #51
snarf21 wrote: post #3

This is great news. It is really about the pesticides more than anything else. In my area, hawks are EVERYWHERE . I see at least 1 every 5 miles along the highway (farmland) watching for food. This was not true 20 years ago.

Pesticides are the more recent threat, but their numbers were hit pretty hard prior to DDT by hunting. Congress put a stop to that in the 40s. Farmers saw them as a threat to livestock.

Hunting... Eagles existed in such large numbers and predated on small lifestock. For 36 years, Alaska paid a bounty of $2 per dead eagle. They had a confirmed 120,195 eagles which bounty was paid on.

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=baldeagle.printerf...

Post reply on HN