Bird of the Day: Bald Eagle

by Doctor Science

Yesterday morning I spent about an hour along the Raritan River in central NJ. The river is less than 50m wide at that point, so it's possible to look at every one of the several thousand Canada Geese present, trying to find a rare goose (Cackling, Snow, White-Fronted, etc.) mixed in, even if (like me) you're only carrying pretty light-weight binoculars. No dice this time, but I did see an adult Bald Eagle flying up the river and onto a perch on the other side. This picture:

taken along the Raritan last year by Flickr user magarell gives a good idea of the view, though I had no golden glow of sunset.

As I looked at the bird I exclaimed with joy, and told a runner passing by, "It's a Bald Eagle!" The great thing about adult Bald Eagles is that even a binocularless mundane can recognize them, because they're so large, clearly marked, and familiar from pictures. Which is one reason Ben Franklin was full of it, wanting to make the turkey our American symbol. Sorry, Ben, Wild Turkeys are just *creepy* -- they move like velociraptors.

I started birding in 1969, when Bald Eagles were almost extirpated in the US outside of Alaska. The birds have made an incredible comeback, so that even NJ, once down to a single nest, now has more than 100 nesting pairs. My instincts are still set on "really rare! see it while you still can!", though, for Peregrine Falcons and Ospreys as well as for Eagles.

And yes, it's really true that these birds, already threatened, were driven to the brink by DDT. It's unspeakably exasperating to have to say this, but if you've heard that DDT had nothing to do with the Bald Eagle's near-extinction it was a lie. Not a mistake, not a different scientific opinion, a lie. The most assiduous spreader of that lie is anti-environmentalist Steven Milloy; Tim Panogos Ed Darrell is exhaustively documenting and refuting the cloud of untruths Milloy keeps squirting out.

Why does Milloy keep doing this? Probably mostly because there's money in it, but I also couldn't help noticing something he said, which I've seen picked up and repeated elsewhere in the FoxNewsOSphere:

Banning DDT wasn’t about birds. It was about power.

This reminded me of something Gandalf says about Sauron (in the book Fellowship of the Ring; like most of Tolkien's more elegant phrasings, it didn't make it into the movie):

For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice. But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts.

I don't know how to counteract this kind of poison when the perpetrators don't have a One Ring that can be destroyed. What would it take for people like Milloy to lose their megaphones? Or at least to be laughed at and ignored, instead of requiring time and energy to counteract?

White-Headed Sea Eagle or Bald Eagle from John James Audubon's Birds of America. You can read Audubon's text about the Eagle here . He agreed with Franklin that the Bald Eagle's habit of stealing from the Fish Hawk (Osprey) made the bird

by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America, who have driven all the King Birds from our country; though exactly fit for that order of knights which the French call Chevaliers d'Industrie

-- that is, Captains of Industry, businessmen.

Comments

[Pinko Punko]

Timpanogos?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Timpanogos

But, Milloy is terrible.

[russell]

What would it take for people like Milloy to lose their megaphones?

Fewer people eager to hear and believe what he has to say.

[Countme-In]

The thought occurs that when Franklin and the other Founders went symbol-shopping (made all of that sh*t up) way back then that we could just as well be tuning into FOXNews today to watch the liposucked blondes and assorted whackjobs tuck into a platter of roasted bald eagle (basted with one part DDT, one part oil of wingnut) and fixings on Thanksgiving morning as symbolic red, white, and blue tom turkeys strut their stuff with patriotic gusto on the news crawl at the bottom of the screen, while the music swells as we hear the latest on our military's Operation Rolling Turkey Gobble in Iraq.

On the other hand, reading Milloy's curriculum vitae alerts me to the enshrinement of the Bald-Faced Lie, our other protected national treasure, in the First Amendment and, oddly enough, helps my thinking on the Second Amendment evolve to a position of being thankful that the Founders explicitly listed therein the Bushmaster as a protected species, in case the Bald-Faced Lie further ravages the tender green shoots of truth in the yard.

[Matt McIrvin]

I'd heard much of Milloy's "Rachel Carson as mass murderer" schtick but hadn't even realized he'd outright denied that DDT affected bird eggs.

He's an amazingly brazen and persistent liar, and these people just never go away no matter how many times they get exposed. That's the really frustrating part.

[Countme-In]

Since Milloy's name came up, I figure also under the general rubric of flat-out stupid this deserves mention.

Republican legislators in the Free Territory of Texas want to license strippers AND force them to prominently display those licenses on their, uh .... well, affixed to their, umm, persons.

http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=13fe3369-e113-4817-941b-3e78f55f5647

I would think a simple but unassuming tattoo would do.

Next up, apparently, strippers must conceal carry while performing in Texas (not a big stretch since they start the show wearing only spurs, a holster, and cowboy fringe), which would also have the upside for their employers of saving money on bouncers.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

About bald-faced liars, I'm reminded of a scene the novel "Dead Air" by Iain Banks...

The main character is roped into a TV debate with a holocaust denier...just after introductions, he gets up and beats the shit out of the denier.

Then, in spite of witnesses and video tapes, denied that he did anything of the kind. Charged with assault, lots of publicity, case dropped.

If only poetic justice worked so well in real life.

[Turbulence]

Milloy doesn't work in a vacuum. For 15 years, he worked out of the Cato Institute and now he works out of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Whatever opprobrium attaches to him should also attach to them in some measure. The next time a libertarian sends you a link to a thoughtful piece from Cato, remember that this organization thought that Milloy's work was worth supporting.

[Slartibartfast]

Florida is full of bald eagles and ospreys. Peregrine falcons, I have no idea. Both ospreys and eagles are easy to spot; the latter for reasons Doc Science gave, and the former because they're also dramatically marked and (as I said) quite populous around the lakes of Florida. Particularly the ones far away from urban areas.

I see enough bald eagles in Florida that sighting one feels like it ought to be routine, but it never is.

Anyone living around Orlando should really go visit the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey. It's off the beaten tourism path, but they have birds (some that are rehabilitating; others that just cannot be released, ever) that are difficult to spot in the wild. I'd never seen a shrike up close, nor had I ever been within inches of a screech owl. I'd never, ever seen a kestrel before, either.

One of which my daughter wanted, immediately.

It's not so much a zoo as a place that irreparably damaged animals can live out the rest of their lives, and a place that fixes up animals that can be repaired and releases them.

[Ed Darrell]

First, thanks for plugging bald eagles. Neat birds.

Second, thanks for the link -- I hope people will see through Milloy, and I think the facts alone should justify their turning away from his entire propaganda operation, and all related sites, though I don't expect it. Hopeful I remain, but I don't expect miracles.

Third, thanks for the correction. I grew up with Mt. Timpanogos in my window every morning and moonlit night; I also find it amusing when people think that's my name, and not the URL. Sane people make the correction, and insane people don't. And so I can quickly tell people who are friends to the facts, and those who are not.

I've spent a lot of electrons on the DDT issue. In addition to any mentions of Mr. Milloy, I keep an always-incomplete list of articles at my site dealing with DDT, Rachel Carson's reputation (which is under assault by wanna-be Philistines like Milloy) and the fight against DDT: "DDT chronicles at Millard Fillmore's Bathtub."

The good news in this year, the 51st since Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, is that serious journals and serious journalists rarely fall victim to the anti-eagle, anti-science, anti-environmentalist, pro-DDT propaganda. Alas, there are a dozen crappy bloggers on the internet who take up the cudgel for DDT for every good journalist who lays the hoaxes to rest.

Your writing down the facts at Obsidian Wings helps, a lot.

[cleek]

the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey

that sounds awesome.

there's a small town on the NC coast, named Beaufort. it's a favorite weekend vacation spot for me and Mrs. the Rachael Carson National Sanctuary is right next door. it's the only place i've seen a wild osprey. (one can see many of the mechanical type, too, just a bit west at Camp Lejune)

and, similarly, if anyone should ever find themselves near Pittsboro, NC, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes than taking a tour at the Carolina Tiger Rescue. it's a place where big (and small) cats which can't be released into the wild can go after they've been abandoned and/or rescued.

[geographylady]

There's a small cove along the Hood Canal just north of Seabeck, WA, where a creek enters the bay. It's full of bald eagles - at least 50, both juvenile and adults. At low tide the eagles feed among the oyster beds. The road gets pretty crowded with all the parked cars and birders darting in and out among them, but its worth the trip.
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/4614_90349027502_1208341_n.jpg

[Hartmut]

There are a few applications where DDT is still useful and is used under strict oversight. The problem is always to not let that become an opening for returning to mass production and use. And of course there are the guys who would (ab)use it just to 'show dem trehuggas and bird-cuddlas'.

[John Herbison]

I am reminded of Upton Sinclair's famous comment: It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

[hidflect]

So why are they called "Bald" Eagles? Seems a bit insulting.

I know.. I could Wikipedia this but I prefer the whole commentary thing..

[liberal japonicus]

We're a fullservice shop here.

Old meaning of bald is 'white' or 'with no color'. Here is the etymology, and the term piebald means a combination of a color and white.

[hidflect]

arigatou gozaimasu!

[Sgaile-beairt]

milloys link to ddt is likely via OLin fndtn....they pay a lot of funds to the grps he belongs to, & they have been buying pro-ddT propaganda since the 90s at least, they lost alot of money when it lost sway,

http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/ddt/04.html