Reply
Fri 13 Feb, 2004 04:11 pm
Full Story
Quote:Have binoculars, will travel
"What's amazing is that people never get tired of talking about bald eagles, exchanging stories and going out to view them," said Jody Millar, bald eagle coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Davenport, Iowa, area.
She also says that bird watchers should not expect to see continued increases in numbers of eagles each year because the raptors will eventually reach a level where their population is sustainable and level.
Indeed the Audubon Society, which calls the eagle's recovery "one of the biggest conservation successes of the 20th century," believes that bald eagles are already more common today nationally than they were at the end of the 19th century.
Eagle watching also has an economic impact. The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that 66 million Americans spent more than $38 billion observing, feeding and taking picture of wildlife, including eagles, in 2001.
Guess what! We have at least three adult bald eagles in Farmington, NM.
Thats fabulous Roger!
I have yet to see one up close and personal but, hope to since they are being reported in the area.
a subject near and dear. Here are the weekly counts for this winter.
Iowa Eagle Count
Quinn1.... the offer still stands to go to the lake. i dunno if they're still there, but it's worth a shot. And if we don't see eagles, we will see swans. You can't lose!
Swimpy..WOW..Eagle population explosion..thats fantastic!
K, well, I was thinking maybe just a wee bit warmer
warmer? they're here now. You know birds, if they're here now, it means they won't be in the spring. or maybe not <hic>
true
maybe a warmish weekend perhaps?
today would have been good.
When we went on a Alaskan cruise many years ago, we were able to visit the bald eagle preserve north of Haines. We flew on a small plane from Skagway to Haines, took a bus up river, then floated down on rafts where we saw bear and bald eagles. I stopped near a stream, and our guide pulled out a large salmon with his bare hands. Most of the bald eagles were high up on trees, so they were not easy to see. When my wife and I did the trans-Canada train ride from Toronto to Vancouver last August, we saw bald eagles flying over the river.
humm.yeah today would have been good..ah well
Hi. Saw a news report about a local webcam for an eagle's nest and thought some people might be interested.
Kent Washington Eagle Nest Webcam page
I think i mentioned this elsewhere, but, last week, or the end of the week before, the ODNR reported that an eaglet was born to a nesting pair in a refuge south of Toledo.
great stuff guys, thanks for sharing
Piffka - that's so cool! Thanks!
This is from a recent issue of IDNR's Wildlife Diversity E-News
2004 MIDWINTER BALD EAGLE SURVEY REPORT
by Mark McInroy, Natural Resource Technician
Iowans did an excellent job of completing 51 of 54 standardized routes this year. Iowa's survey count this year yielded record 4432 bald eagles found in 55 Iowa counties. This count includes the Standard Survey Routes and additional (48) observations seen while conducting an annual statewide aerial waterfowl survey. The previous high count was 2001 with 2493 bald eagles. Although this year's count is exceptionally high, it continues the upward trend over the last decade. Once all the midwestern regional data has been compiled we can determine the noteworthiness of Iowa's count.
On average, this survey was conducted January 9th. The average temperature was 23.6 F, and the ice conditions were estimated over all surveys at about 75% ice cover. Although mild conditions preceded the survey date, comments indicate general conditions during the survey were normal to slightly colder than normal. Most areas had comment that largest concentrations occurred near open water. Generally, the more open water on all rivers the more widespread the distribution of bald eagles. The year 2002 and 2003 had 20-65% and 34% average ice cover respectively. Both of these years had only 30% and 47% of all bald eagles counted along the Mississippi River; while in 2001 and 2004 there was 81% and 75% average ice cover with over 70% of the total count represented along "big muddy" each of these years.
Since 2001 the percentage of immature bald eagles has ranged from 30%-42%. This year 40.5% of all bald eagles counted were immature. This is still a substantial juvenile population and seems to indicate the overall population is stable or growing.
The overall upward trend in winter eagle survey numbers could be reflective of the number of eagle nests. Recent data shows continued increase with 61 Iowa counties and about 160 total nests documented. The future for eagles continues to look promising!
Hi Swimpy . . . don't see much of you these days . . .
Cool, Swimpy. That's a lot of Bald Eagles... more than in Washington state, which is supposed to have a really large population.
Almost all Bald Eagles in Washington are in the western half part of the state, from the Cascade mountains to the ocean and including all of Puget Sound. The east side is much drier and I'm told the large raptors there are mainly Golden Eagles.
Hi, Setanta! I'm not around as much as I useta be.
Piff, We're on teh Mississippi flyway. We get many eagles on the open water near the dams, but this year we've had enormous numbers on the interior lakes and rivers as well. There was little snow cover for most of the winter, so that may have had some impact. Eagles are scavengers, so they like to feed on the dead baby piggies that farmers through out in their fields. Kinda gross, when you think about it.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace