November is National Bald Eagle month, and Land Between the Lakes provides bird-watchers and national symbol-lovers alike with ample opportunities to see these large birds in their natural habitat. John Pollpeter, lead naturalist at the LBL Woodlands Nature Station, visits Sounds Good to discuss eagles and how to find them.
The bald eagle was chosen as the national symbol for the United States on June 20, 1782, but not everyone was a fan of this choice. "Ben Franklin wanted the wild turkey as our national symbol, not necessarily the bald eagle," Pollpeter explains. "He was writing a letter to, I believe, a cousin or niece of some sort, and was just saying that he did not like the eagle as our national symbol because it was a scavenger. It would often eat, back then, wagon kill. He also didn't like it because it would often steal from other birds, like osprey, and he didn't want that to present our country. He felt the turkey [was a better choice] because of its symbolism of Thanksgiving, and the males have red, white, and blue colors during the breeding season."
"As nations are being developed and formed, of course, they want strong symbols. There was a big debate. I believe it was the Secretary of State that had recommended the bald eagle because it was a North American endemic, which means it's only found really in North America. Of course, it has a strong symbolism behind it...I guess the Founding Fathers [Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson] decided that was what seemed to be the best," Pollpeter continues.
"There's a number of good reasons why the eagles, I think make our national symbol," Pollpeter says. "One, it's one of the largest birds that you're going to find in North America. Female eagles, which are the larger of the two sexes, have an 8-foot wingspan. Eagles can fly up to 100 miles per hour at a dive. They can see a fish about a mile away. In their talons, their talon strength is about 1,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. That's pretty strong pressure for most birds. I think it actually is considered the largest nest builder in North America. The largest eagle nest that was in recorded history in North America was 10 feet across, 20 feet deep, and weighed two tons...it was probably built over generations. [Eagles are] a long-lived species. Bald eagles can live in the wild over 35 years. So it probably lived at that nest and kept rebuilding, remodeling its nest over and over again, and then maybe its kids took over."
Bald eagles' strength, size, and long life span have made them a long-lasting symbol of patriotic pride. However, in the mid-20th century, the North American bald eagle population was threatened by harmful pesticides and poachers.
"[Bald eagles] were actually on the endangered species list. In 1949, DDT - which was a pesticide that got into common use during WWII - became commercial. It was widespread all throughout the country between 1949 and [approximately] 1973. During that time period, many birds - and many other animals - suffered from that because it's a pesticide that has long-term effects to it," Pollpeter explains. "The eagle populations crashed to the point that we almost lost our national symbol. There were only 400 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states. That's pretty bad. The United States is a huge country to have that sparse of a population. Our national symbol almost went out."
"So in the late 1960s, Congress started creating some endangered species lists that didn't have any teeth," Pollpeter continues. "Not until 1973...the eagle actually made it on the endangered species list as one of its top signatories. It stayed on there until 2007. In 2007, it got taken not only off the endangered species list but the threatened list, so it's completely in the clear. It went from 400 nesting pairs to about 10,000 by 2007. So its population has increased since the banning of DDT and other protections. Eagles are still under protection under the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle Act, which protects our national symbol from being taken, feathers collected, or harmed in any manner.
The success of conservation efforts to remove bald eagles from the endangered species list was more than likely partially due to its status as our national symbol. "It was quite an embarrassment for our national symbol to be almost wiped out in extinction. So there was a lot of effort that went to it," Pollpeter says. "But you know, the thing is...when you protect certain species, like a bald eagle - a big, showy, charismatic mega-fauna like that - you protect a lot of other species underneath it. One of the provisions of the Endangered Species Act is the critical habitat that you have to protect as well. When you're doing these things, you're protecting a lot of other species that might also fall on that list."
Bald eagles can be seen in Land Between the Lakes year-round, but November is "typically the time period that eagles are going to move into our area," Pollpeter explains. "Oddly enough, during the summer months is one of the tougher times to see eagles because the leaves are on the trees, there's not as many down here, they're all nesting. [In November, they start] flying down that Mississippi flyway, hitting Land Between the Lakes because we are one of the first bodies of water that stays open all year-round. We go from a population of 150 bald eagles in the summer to about 300 in the winter months."
"The best way to come see eagles at Land Between the Lakes is when we lead our tours. We always try to go to the northwest section of Land Between the Lakes. There's a lot of good boat ramps. For some reason, the eagles tend to prefer Kentucky Lake a lot of times over Barkley Lake. There's some theories about the winds and water and how fish gets pushed up against the shoreline. Also, the two big dams, their tailwaters, that's where a lot of eagles like to collect. Around the Nature Station itself, there are several nesting pairs of eagles. It becomes a wildlife refuge, so during the winter months, a lot of water foul goes in there. Of course, water foul is eagle food. So if you have a lot of water foul, you're going to have a lot of eagles in the area," Pollpeter explains.
Eagle programs are held at the Woodlands Nature Station every day. They offer van tours in November, which then evolve into boat tours in January. On these tours, it's possible to see the eagles' dramatic mating ritual. "Walt Whitman called it the "Dalliance of the Eagles," Pollpeter says. "In January, male and female eagles will do their courtship dance. You can actually see this on Kentucky Lake if you go on our van tours or our boat tours. But they'll fly as high as they can, then they'll grasp talons, and as they grasp talons, they will tumble to the earth - wings flopping all over the place as they're falling. And right before they hit the water or the land, they split apart and fly away. During that time period, they would have mated."
"We always encourage people when they go out looking for eagles in Land Between the Lakes to notice the other parts of the ecosystem around you. You may not get to see an eagle up close, you may not get to see an eagle doing a cool activity, but you're going to see things like the 20 species of ducks we might have here, sometimes you'll get to see...a lot of geese, swans possibly, the pelicans, the cormorants. There's a whole group of ecosystem that's all interacting with each other, and if you take the picture as a whole, you'll have a much better time," Pollpeter concludes.
For more information on the Woodlands Nature Station and opportunities to see bald eagles in their natural habitat, visit the Land Between the Lakes website.
