[HN Gopher] America's bald eagle population continues to soar ___________________________________________________________________ America's bald eagle population continues to soar Author : infodocket Score : 271 points Date : 2021-03-24 16:02 UTC (6 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.fws.gov) (TXT) w3m dump (www.fws.gov) | jimmaswell wrote: | I never saw them as a kid, then one day they started showing up | along the Hudson River again. They don't seem to stray far from | the water though. | blueberry_47 wrote: | X years into living in an area where bald eagles are "common" I | still act like a little kid when I see one. Stunning birds. | kebman wrote: | 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, unschated. Norwegian source: | https://www.nettavisen.no/artikkel/ble-svanhild-2-tatt-av-or... | So if you live in eagle territory, you better watch your | children. ;) | | Anyway, I remember trying to video those things where I grew up. | But they were pretty shy, so I could never get close enough to | get a good picture of them. Really amazing bird though not Bald | Eagles given that I'm from Europe. If you've got the patience and | the equipment to get good pictures of those, then kudos to you, | because that's not easy! | lostlogin wrote: | I wish the Haast eagle was still around. They were just massive | and hunted Moa. They were likely hunted by humans. | | I guess I should be careful what I wish for. | | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haast%27s_eagle | mkl wrote: | I think it's more that all the big birds the eagles hunted | were hunted by humans. It wasn't just moa, the other big | birds are gone too. E.g. search for New Zealand here: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_gigantism | lostlogin wrote: | > Island gigantism, or insular gigantism | | These are great terms. Thanks. | farnsworth wrote: | 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. | mongol wrote: | Why did the eagle not start to feast on her? | 0xfaded wrote: | I've shared a thermal wingtip to wingtip with one soaring under | a hang glider. | datavirtue wrote: | Pun intended | hctaw wrote: | I wonder if they can do anything about the carp problem in the | midwest | hprotagonist wrote: | There's a nesting pair near my house these days. Majestic looking | birds, and they sound like seagulls with brain damage :) | ahelwer wrote: | Absolute lies, they sound exactly like a red-tailed hawk. | reportingsjr wrote: | You've been watching too many movies then! | https://youtu.be/PQ2uMauyBow?t=35 | | I was doing some trail building this last fall and there was | a red tailed hawk nest across the valley. It was pretty | amazing to hear that classic "eagle" call every now and again | while working. | ISL wrote: | I'm fairly certain that GP was making a joke. | reportingsjr wrote: | I assumed as much, but wanted to provide info to people | who might not be aware while also making a bit of a joke | myself. | jimmyed wrote: | OP = original poster GP = ? | wnevets wrote: | Grand Parent? | NortySpock wrote: | Grandparent Poster, so two (or more) replies above. | Igelau wrote: | OPP = other people's posts | nowandlater wrote: | lol, they definitely sound like monkeys. | jimmyed wrote: | My stomach was ready to drop towards the end of the sentence, but | the climax made my heart soar. | funkattack wrote: | Does remembering this: | https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/06/09/Americas-bald-eagle-... | make me old? | Igelau wrote: | Remembering West Germany is indeed a symptom of the oldness. | TheCondor wrote: | Xcel Energy has a great Bald Eagle camera near one of their | energy generation plants in Colorado | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAy3rgJszQg | | It's insanely addictive. Over 40 eaglets have hatched out of | there since they've been counting. Also potentially interesting | to this crowd, the energy plant is natural gas but was originally | a thorium nuclear plant. | duxup wrote: | 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. | snarf21 wrote: | 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. | uberdru wrote: | This is true in my experience as well. I have not seen any | discussion of it, but, man, there are a lot of hawks, harriers, | and, yes, bald eagles where there used to be very few. | azinman2 wrote: | Well people also used to shoot and stuff the bald eagle | specifically because it was the national symbol. I believe | that's what drove down the population a long time ago. | acdha wrote: | That was a factor but a bigger one was widespread use of DDT: | | https://www.fws.gov/midwest/eagle/history/index.html | ryanmcbride wrote: | Anecdotally I've been seeing a lot more birds of prey in my | area over the last 10 years or so too. They're so cool to | watch. | ogre_codes wrote: | 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. | slowhand09 wrote: | 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. | .. | NittLion78 wrote: | You still see a lot of them being brought into wildlife rescue | hospitals for lead poisoning from having eaten birdshot or in | some other way ingesting fired ammunition. Seems to be the | biggest issue in the Midwest for them, anyway. | | Either way, as a kid I remember being told to assume you'd | never see one and they'd probably be extinct in my lifetime. | Now I couldn't even tell you how many I've seen, from as far | east as PA and north to AK. | JoeAltmaier wrote: | I see reports about 'a dozen' etc suffering from lead | ingestion. But no national statistics, just anecdotes. | | Considering that hunters shoot millions of lead bullets each | year, it seems a small problem? It's suggested that birds eat | guts from eviscerated animals that hunters leave behind. | Perhaps a policy of burying or scattering the guts would | solve the problem? | hkarthik wrote: | It's a much smaller scale problem than the pesticide issue. | | Here in Northern California, we're actually unable to use | poisons on pest rodents like squirrels and rats since they | often enter the ecosystem through raptors ingesting them. | | My friends with a lot of land were advised to get pellet | guns and air rifles to deal with their squirrel problems. | It's considered the lowest impact to the ecosystem and food | chain. | WalterBright wrote: | They are always circling over my yard, as they have a nest in the | nearby greenbelt. | | The fun thing is there's a line through my property. The eagles' | territory is west of the line, the hawks' is to the east. | Sometimes they fight over the location of that line. | | The hawks are half the size of the eagles, but they don't take no | ** from the eagles, and it's a fair fight. The hawks usually win | the tussle and drive the eagles back over the line. It's like a | WW1 aerial dogfight. | | And this is in the middle of the Seattle metropolitan area. | subsubzero wrote: | 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. | robinsord wrote: | Did you never leave your house? They're literally everywhere in | Ojai. You can go on a walk at the lake and see them nesting | 24/7 in broad daylight. | thruhiker wrote: | I was rafting in Montana last summer and we got the treat of | seeing several osprey and eagles during our trip. Such cool birds | of prey! | [deleted] | tomatotomato37 wrote: | 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. | tshaddox wrote: | > In the majority of the United States bald eagles are a rare | and majestic sight. | | I didn't realize this until recently. I grew up in Missouri in | the 1990s, where they were relatively common outside of town. | You'd still point them out to other people when you saw one, | but it wasn't a huge deal. Then I went to the Oakland Zoo a few | years ago and they seemed to be a very popular attraction. | dylan604 wrote: | Not to take anything away from seeing a bald eagle, but for a | lot of children that live in the city, seeing regular | livestock like a cow in person is a rare thing. The same | could be said for the night sky. It's all a matter of | vantage. You can see lots of things as photographs on | websites in great detail, but the first time you see that | same thing in real life with your own eyes even if it is in | less detail, it is an experience one doesn't forget. | Arrath wrote: | Oh yeah. Very majestic birds, until you see a dozen of 'em | squabbling over prime spots on the village garbage scow. Alaska | is on an entirely different level. | duxup wrote: | They're common in a lot of areas now even in the lower 48. | nightski wrote: | We see them all over in Minnesota/North Dakota. | boomboomsubban wrote: | If I'm reading their survey correctly, those states have | relatively few bald eagles. The reason I checked is that I | also remember seeing them often in SD, but was never sure if | it was a bald eagle or my parents didn't know/were lying to | me. I'm still unsure, they exist but I've never seen a flock | like that picture posted here. | xkde wrote: | Last I checked, Minnesota had the largest population in the | lower 48. I personally see them all the time. | boomboomsubban wrote: | The survey details are very confusing, the terms change | from the legend to the table, but I did not notice that | the border chosen seperates Minnesota from the Dakotas. | The Dakotas have relatively few I meant. | eevilspock wrote: | _" According to scientists from the Service's Migratory Bird | Program, the bald eagle population climbed to an estimated | 316,700 individual bald eagles in the lower 48 states."_ | | Alaska Department of Fish and Game[1]: | | _" Found only in North America, bald eagles are more abundant | in Alaska than anywhere else in the United States. The Alaska | population is estimated at 30,000 birds."_ | | So you think they bent over backwards, and dishonestly at that, | for a 10% change in reported count? | | Also, "on par with seagulls"? | | --- | | [1] http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=baldeagle.main | dmoy wrote: | Also note that 30k Alaska number is from 2008 | resist_futility wrote: | "Amusing" | | "on par with seagulls" meaning seeing 100 in one single area | [deleted] | cgh wrote: | We have a couple thousand of them in my town on a seasonal | basis every year because they feed on the spawning salmon. They | are a bit of a tourist attraction. | timmg wrote: | Holy crap. Now I want to be a tourist in your town :) | | Er, which town is it? | standeven wrote: | Not sure which town the parent was referring to, but we | have this in Chilliwack, BC. | | https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/incredible-sight- | thousands-o... | UI_at_80x24 wrote: | I live in the Great Lakes region and I have seen several over | my life span. | mkl wrote: | Tangentially, why do Americans call their middle 48 states the | "lower 48"? Alaska is north of them and Hawaii is south of | them. Does "lower" mean "east" somehow? If lower meant south as | on a map, the actual lower 48 would be everything except Alaska | and Minnesota. | alanbernstein wrote: | Well, they're the "lower 48" in terms of the date of | admission to the union... | senkora wrote: | My first thought was that the term could've predated Hawaii | becoming a state, which only happened in 1959. But that seems | to be false; the term only started getting popular around | 1967: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Lower+48& | year_... | vermontdevil wrote: | Just wait till you learn of Down East. | oasisbob wrote: | "Lower 48" is a term from Alaska, and predates Hawaii's | statehood. ie, an updated version would be "Lower 49". | whyenot wrote: | ...but Alaska and Hawaii both became states at almost | exactly the same time (January and August 1959). Maybe it | makes sense if Alaska considered themselves a state in the | years before they officially became one? Otherwise, there | would be no need for the "lower" part. | fermienrico wrote: | It's practical to call the collective states with joint | borders. For example, "Lower 48 shipping" on Amazon is | different rate. | jachee wrote: | Can confirm. | | In Juneau the best place to find them between salmon runs is | near the landfill. | jeh993 wrote: | Years ago, we were shooing a documentary in Valdez and needed | the quintessential bald eagle shot. After looking everywhere, | we asked the locals where to find them. They said the dump. | We got our shots. | nashashmi wrote: | I had the fortune of seeing two bald eagles at a landfill. | Apparently they are very common at landfills. | kibwen wrote: | Relatedly, peregrine falcons were removed from the endangered | species list in 1999 after decades of conservation efforts. Since | 2002 there's been a persistent falcon nest up on the 40th floor | of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning, here's a live feed (looks | like the mother just laid her third egg two days ago and the | falcons have begun incubating): https://www.aviary.org/birds- | habitats/live-streams/ | | EDIT: Aaaand yep, there's the fourth egg. :) | mkl wrote: | Less relatedly than they might seem though. Falcons are more | closely related to parrots than to eagles. | PostThisTooFast wrote: | Aren't bald eagles profoundly stupid? | | I won't draw the obvious parallel... | wiredfool wrote: | 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. | yardie wrote: | I didn't realize how large they were. | | But I saw one at the top of an electrical tower and from the | ground it was large but not gigantic. Much later on they took | the nest down and it was the size of a Mini! Yes, the British | car. | danaliv wrote: | I get fly-bys from bald eagles in the traffic pattern at an | airport I frequent. Even from the cockpit they look enormous. | Definitely don't want one of those monsters to wind up on a | leading edge. | | Incidentally it's interesting how many raptors seem to like | hanging around in airport traffic patterns. I realize there's a | bit of a selection bias here, but I do work at similar | altitudes away from airports and sightings aren't nearly as | common out in the field. I like to think they're reminding the | metal birds who's boss. | soperj wrote: | Likely to do with hot tarmac making it easier to catch a | upward current. | danaliv wrote: | Funny thing is I never see them (or any other raptors) | thermaling over pavement, not even factoring in a thermal | getting skewed by wind. | bengale wrote: | I used to have an office that overlooked an airport (in the | UK), and I used to watch the birds of prey taking rabbits off | the grass surrounding the runways. Seemed to be a lot of them | on there, I guess since its a fairly big area where they | don't get disturbed. | danaliv wrote: | I've wondered if it's something like that--a wide open | space where the prey is easier to see. | sethammons wrote: | 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. | gcheong wrote: | 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. | dboreham wrote: | Came to say the same thing: Bald Eagles are I think regular | sized. Golden Eagles are like "whoa, someone zoomed that | eagle to 3X". | SigmundA wrote: | There is variation, some balds are bigger too especially more | north. Generally though the two are almost identical in size: | https://www.avianreport.com/bald-eagle-wingspan-versus- | birds... | kirubakaran wrote: | Wait till you see Albatrosses :) 11ft wingspan :-p | wiredfool wrote: | An albatross isn't likely to drop out of a fir and fly off | in a huff while I'm figuring out why the chickens are | seriously unhappy. | | Also, semi off topic -- Great horned owls like using | inflatable pools as bird baths. | arethuza wrote: | Sounds like the couple of times I've seen white tailed eagles | near where I live in Scotland - I can see why they are called | "flying barn doors". | wirrbel wrote: | I am always reminded of this meme | | https://img.ifunny.co/images/70898eeb8bc2323e320aca74b03bb9a... | | "Basically a glorified seagull" | abstractbarista wrote: | Wow, this is great to hear! I'm in North Carolina, and we have a | beautiful (man-made) lake called Jordan Lake where the eagles can | be frequently seen. I've been out on boats before and watched | them grab fish out of the water. Then you see them fly up to a | nest and chill. :) It's truly amazing. | ehaskins wrote: | The National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN has several eagles which | were injured now live there. | | Definitely worth the trip to stand within 10ft of several Eagles, | and there are usually plenty of wild eagles within sight of there | as well. | | https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org | abcanthur wrote: | More anecdata, I know of a catfish processor a few miles inland | from the Mississippi River (the bluffs of the Mississippi are | one of their favorite habitats) in Wisconsin where they scatter | fish carcasses in the fields during the winter. I have seen | flocks of no less than one hundred bald eagles in the field and | roosted in the nearby trees. This is interesting to me | regarding the view of Bald Eagles as apex predators (America!) | or scavengers (like seeing them at a landfill). They are | certainly both. I've gotten within yards of them a few times | while cycling in the same area; they will be feeding on | roadkill and they fly off just as I quietly roll up to them. | They are huge, beautiful, totally majestic, very believable to | imagine them flying off with a small lamb or nightmare | scenario, a toddler. | roland35 wrote: | Lots of bald eagles are around Ohio now too! I never remember | seeing any 20 years ago but now we have a few nests in our | neighborhood. | ChrisMarshallNY wrote: | 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 redtail (we have them, | too). | alistairSH wrote: | _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. | boulos wrote: | Movies often dub a redtail hawk scream over bald eagle | footage! | | https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=156187. | .. | eventualhorizon wrote: | Can confirm. Have Red Tail nesting pair in my back yard. Have | heard them a couple of times today. | 29athrowaway wrote: | Bald eagles eat fish and other animals like squirrels and prairie | dogs. The size and health of the bald eagle population is also an | indicator of the health and size of the species they use as food. | ryanianian wrote: | You'll also see collars of domestic dogs and cats in raptor | nests. This is a frightening new thing to watch for in the | semi-rural area near my parents' house. They're used to looking | out for coyotes and raccoons which can be dangerous to pets. | It's comparatively harder to eagle-proof a back yard. | hinkley wrote: | I know of someone who keeps hawks away from his chickens by | interrupting flight paths into and out of his yard with | plants of various size and spacing. | | Trees and trellises should help, but if you want a tiny dog | and a big playground for your riding lawnmower, you're in for | some disappointments. | dclaw wrote: | Happy to finally see them soaring here in California. Around this | time last year I finally spotted one in the wild flying above my | yard, it was tagged and everything. Gorgeous site to see. | hinkley wrote: | Are all of these birds from the same 800 bird gene pool or were | birds relocated from Canada and Alaska? | cooperadymas wrote: | While not related to the bald eagle population rise, which has | been going up for over a decade, I heard a theory about third and | fourth order effects of the pandemic that involved rise in | predator species like eagles. | | Basically, with fewer cars on the road for a large stretch of | last spring, small critter populations would boom since | automobile death is one of the leading modern causes of death in | young critters. | | With the population of small animals on the rise, predators would | have more accessible food sources allowing their populations to | rise over the following years. | | I have no idea how this is holding up or whether its based in | reality but I found it an interesting way to think about | unintended consequences of a large shift in the modern way of | living. | abraae wrote: | Not sure about in the US but here in NZ, birds of prey such as | Australasian Harriers thrive by eating roadkill. It's common to | round a corner and find one struggling to take off from the | carcass it is eating in the middle of the road. | NDizzle wrote: | 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. | metamet wrote: | I saw two of them circling my neighborhood in Minneapolis last | week. Gigantic, gorgeous wingspans. Few of my neighbors saw me | outside looking up in the sky and came out to see what was | going on and stood and watched for a bit too. | | It's always fun to see them on the drive up north, too. Such | cool looking birds. | bliteben wrote: | 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. | gcheong wrote: | Grew up in Astoria (70's - mid 80's) and never saw that many | at once. Would be interested to know where your spot is :). | Although I've never seen them I've seen pictures of Snowy | Owls at the South Jetty. https://www.jack-n- | jill.net/blog/2012/12/south-jetty-snowy-o... | steve_adams_86 wrote: | According to national eagle center, "The average eagle needs | between 1/2 and 1 pound of food each day.". So those animals | are harvesting 35-70lb of food (other animals) per day. | That's incredible to me! There must be so much life in that | area. | | https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/eagle-diet-feeding/ | thaumasiotes wrote: | > So those animals are harvesting 35-70lb of food (other | animals) per day. That's incredible to me! There must be so | much life in that area. | | I mean, you could almost certainly harvest more than 70 | pounds of ants a day without making a dent in the ant | population. Eagles can't eat ants, but "pounds of life" | doesn't mean much. | abakker wrote: | 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. | xiaolingxiao wrote: | so much freedom! | loceng wrote: | Actually, yes. | medium_burrito wrote: | I've seen the same in driving up to Vancouver from YVR. | Freedom spills over the border! | allbedarned wrote: | helllll yeah brother | dylan604 wrote: | should have gone with the turkey | longshui wrote: | allow the pigeon to disagree | throwaway894345 wrote: | Bald Eagles don't eat pigeon. Are you thinking of the | Peregrine Falcon? Or am I misunderstanding your reference? | [deleted] | wnevets wrote: | Another environmental regulation success story. | goshx wrote: | There's a nest here in South Florida which a couple uses every | year. I hope the neighbor with a drone hasn't caused them to move | permanently. | | Also, in Cape Canaveral there is a nest on the way to the | Apollo/Saturn V center. I was lucky to see one of the eagles | resting on top of the building when I went to watch a Falcon 9 | launch. | mason55 wrote: | Saw one flying over an intersection in suburban Colorado just | last weekend. I had seen them "in the wild" before (e.g. while | river rafting in PA) but it was interesting to see one while I | was just out running errands. | ngoldbaum wrote: | There's a nest and nesting pair you can see really clearly from | the wildlife viewing area at Barr Lake State Park, about a mile | and a half from the parking lot. Helps to have a telephoto lens | or decent pair of binoculars, although when I was there a few | weeks ago there were several just hanging out in trees right | next to trails. | gullywhumper wrote: | I live about 3/4 mile up river from a nest along the Mississippi | River. My office overlooks the river and I keep a log of every | time I see one flying by. You can walk almost under the nest, and | when they're home you can get a sense of just how large they are. | After 4 years of living here it never gets old - I dread the day | we have to move. | citilife wrote: | The other day, I saw an eagle hunting over my neighborhood pond. | Frankly, I was shocked to see it. Definitely appreciate the | wildlife returning. | disambiguation wrote: | This remind me of a PlanetMoney episode from a while ago | | > https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/02/03/513302816/epis... | | > Over time, though, Harris's worldview changed. He started to | see the downside to the industrial farming ... To replace the | chemical fertilizer, he brought in chickens and let them roam | free. Free-range chickens would fertilize the grass; the grass | would nurture the cattle, and shoppers at Whole Foods would love | Harris's organic beef. ... But then, the eagles started to | descend on Harris's farm. Eagles eat chicken. Eagles love | chicken. | | Since eagles are protected by law, the farmer wasn't allowed to | hunt and clear the eagles from preying on his organic operation. | | No good deed goes unpunished? | POiNTx wrote: | The Biggest Little Farm[1] is a good documentary on this sort | of topic. They started an organic farm and hit a similar pain | point when coyotes started eating their chickens. They also had | a problem with gophers eating their crops. I don't remember | exactly but they were fighting the gophers with something, but | it wasn't working that well. The solution was to let the | gophers go wild, and the coyotes would take care of them | instead of their chickens. They balanced each other out. | | Now I don't know how this works with bald eagles, but there | might be a similar solution for this. | | [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8969332/ | [deleted] | jobu wrote: | Near the end of that podcast they talk about how Will Harris | had evolved his farm to make money off the new flock of eagles | that come to the farm: | | > _" But Will is resourceful, you know. He keeps trying to | cross that gap. At one point as we're driving around the farm, | we're next to this field with some chickens in it. And there's | a pickup truck coming the other way. Will stops the Jeep to | talk to the driver of the truck...."_ | | > _" In the bed of the truck, there's a guy with a camera with | this giant telephoto lens, which is apparently pretty common. | People now come to Will's farm to see the eagles. He had this | special Eagle Day a few days before I was there. He's even | built cabins for people to rent out."_ | sn_master wrote: | Can he use drones to scare them? Making noise and lights etc | not kinetic force. | KineticLensman wrote: | Eagles can take down small drones that invade their airspace. | They are also used to being mobbed by smaller birds. | | Eagles have actually been trialled as an anti-drone defence | [0]. Although this isn't actually a good idea in the long | run. A serious attacker could flood an eagle with a drone | swarm, or make drones (e.g. explody, sharper blades) designed | to hurt / kill eagles. It also takes considerable time and | patience to train an eagle compared with the ease with which | drones can be replaced. | | [0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-35750816 | tw04 wrote: | Which is why you have dogs to protect your livestock. | | I think people forget that man's best friend became that way by | doing jobs for us. Want your cattle and chickens protected from | wolves, fox, eagles, etc? Train some dogs to protect them. | whimsicalism wrote: | Ah but you see that doesn't scale to industrial size non- | industrial farming. | pueblito wrote: | I have guinea hens for pest mitigation and when the coyotes | and/or hawks have picked off enough I just buy more. I pay | about $2 each, it's not worth getting a trained dog to watch | over them, especially since coyotes and raptors do me a huge | solid by keeping the cottontail population in check | tw04 wrote: | You can adopt a dog from your local humane society for very | little. When I say "train" I mean "find a dog that isn't | going to eat your chickens or run away if you can't keep | them in a fenced area". | | Unless you've actually got cattle you need herded and | protected from wolves, pretty much any mutt over 60lbs is | going to be good enough to keep the predators away. They'll | also be happy to help the rabbits if you let them. | frankfrankfrank wrote: | Are you actually aware of dogs protecting free-range chickens | against bald eagles? I am not sure that bald eagles really | care about dogs. A bald eagle will swoop down and snatch a | chicken or even two and fly away without even landing. | | That being said I think an even very loose "netting" that can | consist of simply rope criss-crossing with certain gaps can | sufficiently dissuade eagles and even other prey birds. | tw04 wrote: | >Are you actually aware of dogs protecting free-range | chickens against bald eagles? | | At any given time I've got 3-5 bald eagles in the woods | around my house. There are 3 houses with chickens in the | neighborhood. The eagles won't go anywhere near a yard with | a dog - I'm quite confident they aren't dumb enough to | tangle with a large dog unless they have no other option | for food. | | I have no doubt if an eagle was starving to death it might | tangle with the dog and might even win, but I don't think | that would be their first, second, or fifth choice if there | were other food options. | Floegipoky wrote: | Livestock guardians as a general rule don't protect by | fighting, but by convincing the predator that the risk is | too high to bother. The guardian alerts and the flock | reacts to the danger, seeking shelter, making noise, | looking up, etc. Without an easy meal the predator moves | on. Arial predators are especially risk-averse because it | doesn't take much to cause a mortal injury. | | I've even heard of people using guardian geese instead of | dogs. They're supposed to be very effective at preventing | arial predation and orders of magnitude cheaper than dogs, | though I've never heard anyone talk about them in the | context of something the size of a bald eagle. | [deleted] | alistairSH wrote: | Raptors are always amazing to watch. In flight, at rest, nesting, | feeding/hunting. So cool. | | My house backs a golf course and we currently have a nesting pair | of red-tail hawks about 200 yards away. Every once in a while, | one soars by with a snake in beak. They also tussle with the | local crows (who I assume are tying to snatch eggs). | rdiddly wrote: | This seems as good a time/place as any to remind everyone that | the sound an eagle makes isn't the screech Hollywood has made you | believe it is (that's a red-tailed hawk). It's actually | relatively non-macho (for a superpower's mascot anyway) and | sounds like it's laughing. | | The hawk says: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red- | tailed_Hawk/sounds | | The eagle says: | https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bald_Eagle/sounds | WalterBright wrote: | I wish hollywood would make a few more recordings. They always | use exactly the same one, every time they have a long shot of a | wilderness scene. Movies, TV shows, documentaries, everything. | | It's worse than the Wilhelm Scream. | rdiddly wrote: | Absolutely, I was already thinking Wilhelm Scream as I | finally arrived at those words in your comment! | | Edit: What we need is a satirical movie full of in-jokes, | like opening a wilderness long-shot with a Wilhelm Scream. | smazga wrote: | There's also a stock audio sound for police radio chatter | that is the same as the one in SimCity 2000. Every time I | hear that (which is too often) I can't help but think "well, | you cheaped out on sound design" | titzer wrote: | I noticed that too! I thought I was going crazy until I | started compiling a list of them... | | "We need a dispatchment 148...mumble mumble...ksshhh" | | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dklA4-ACN4k | Isamu wrote: | Maybe unpopular, but I like the chuckling screech of the bald | eagle. Also barn swallows, they kind of "talk" when they are | relaxed. | post_below wrote: | As superpower mascots go, I think the eagle turned out to be | pretty much perfect. Large, powerful, masters of their | environment, noble from a distance. Up close, easily scared, | shameless scavengers who love the opportunity to steal prey | from other creatures. | | Note: No intention of starting a political conversation, as a | resident of said superpower I just love the irony. | kilroy123 wrote: | I've seen one in the wild. Actually a beautiful animal. | fermienrico wrote: | As superpower mascots go, I think the eagle turned out to be | pretty much perfect. Large, powerful, masters of their | environment, noble from a distance. Up close, intelligent, | optimally utilizing resources through scavenging, leaving | nothing to waste and who love the opportunity to provide to | their young ones and benefit other creatures through | symbiosis. | | One can spin it whatever which way. | systemvoltage wrote: | If your intent wasn't to start a political flame war, what is | the insight you're providing here? | | Every animal needs to survive and will do anything to get by | including scavenging. That's nature. At this very moment, | millions of things are getting eaten alive. Welcome to the | brutality of Mother Nature. | | It's not very charitable to say something deeply provocative | and putting a note to defend. It only reflects your | prejudice. | verall wrote: | > Every animal needs to survive and will do anything to get | by including scavenging. | | Yea, and so do nations. The descriptors they used feel | conformable describing both the nation and the mascot. It's | not deeply provocative. It is a comparison that is | interesting to read, because it describes how nations and | animals can act similarly, but on difference scales. | seriousquestion wrote: | TIL! What else is manufactured like this? Anyone know if a big | list of examples exists? | oblio wrote: | The whole thing is a lie. | | The bald eagle screech is not that of the bald eagle. | | Plenty of eagle species are bald yet the "bald" eagle isn't | bald. | | If you think about it, it's a fantastic metaphor for the US :-p | partiallypro wrote: | There are now bald eagles around here in Nashville. I have never | seen one in the wild before until recently. It might not be a | good thing, if I'm being honest. | jjathman wrote: | Is there any doubt that in today's political environment we never | would be able to pull this same conservation effort off? We'd | hear endless reports from Republicans about how DDT really isn't | that bad, how scientists are lying, and how we couldn't possibly | do anything to "hurt the economy". | sparker72678 wrote: | Nice to get some good news. | [deleted] | blacktriangle wrote: | Not if you're a rabbit. | Arrath wrote: | Or small dog. I was at a campground in Alaska that had plenty | of signs posted re: keeping your pets indoors. Well, someone | chose to let their little poodle out of their RV and an eagle | took a chance to have a snack. | | The aftermath looked like someone hit a feather pillow with a | shotgun. | dcanelhas wrote: | How small a dog are we talking about? pug/chiuaua-sized? | Not sure I understood what actually happened. Did the bird | take the dog and leave some feathers behind? Did the dog | shred the bird? Did the dog's owner shoot the bird with a | shotgun? | Arrath wrote: | The dog wasn't more than 10-15 pounds, miniature french | poodle looking thing. Sorry for being unclear, but the | aftermath was all the fuzzy dog hair that got scattered | everywhere from the impact. Dog was done for, owner | didn't have time to react beyond scream and try to get | the Park Ranger to "DO SOMETHING ABOUT THESE DANGEROUS | BIRDS" | dcanelhas wrote: | I've heard of wolves being hunted using golden eagles in | Mongolia, they're not much larger than a bald eagle. | | I wish the biohackers would bring back Haast's eagle. | yosito wrote: | I was just thinking this past weekend about how bald eagles are | endangered and how it would be so cool to see one some day. I'm | American, but I've spent very little of the last 10 years in the | US. I was taught in grade school that bald eagles were endangered | and I had no idea that they were making a comeback. Very cool! | dcanelhas wrote: | I felt compelled to voice my appreciation for the double-entendre | of this title. | umvi wrote: | I would say the title is just using a plain old pun... "double | entendre" usually implies there is a way to sexually interpret | the phrase | mikeg8 wrote: | Bald eagle can also refer to a woman's shaved... aka | Brazilian | dcanelhas wrote: | Oh, I didn't know that! I thought the expression simply meant | double understanding/meaning. | pwython wrote: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_entendre | [deleted] | frabjoused wrote: | I just got back from meeting some friends in Blaine, WA. Bald | eagles hanging out everywhere. | kaycebasques wrote: | They became a somewhat common sight for me in Bremerton, | Washington and I just saw one in Pittsburgh. | ravieira wrote: | I saw one earlier this year flying over a pond in Southwest | Georgia where they seem to be rare. It is truly a beautiful bird! | nxpnsv wrote: | Is there a word for puns that are not jokes, like this title? | thatwasunusual wrote: | Some kind of irony here... /s | elwell wrote: | Relaxing work buddy to keep on your third monitor: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zE6qcgTox8 | alistairSH wrote: | Video of video-equipment installation... | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu4Motcpq5A | | Not just one random eagle enthusiast, but a whole team of | volunteers. | hermanoreis wrote: | Gosh. Started reading the headline and thought: oh no, another | NFT? Then I read the rest of the title. :) :) ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-03-24 23:00 UTC)