Jody Victor : Who could forget the awesome sight of a Bald Eagle soaring high on an updraft, broad wings silhouetted against the sky? Or the piercing cry as an eagle plummets towards a lake, talons extended to seize unsuspecting prey? And what if you could watch these eagles right in your front yard? Check out my Eagle Photos folder top left for an idea of what we can see from our front porch as we relax at our home on Sandusky Bay. I took these photos not long ago – these eagles are amazing and absolutely beautiful. Let me tell you all about Bald Eagles in the Great Lakes Region.
The dramatic coloring, beauty in flight, and hunting proficiency of these distinctive birds make them instantly recognizable throughout North America. For many people, they are potent symbols of pride and strength. That connection is a driving force for countless conservationists who have worked hard and successfully to protect and restore Bald Eagle populations in the Great Lakes region.
Bald Eagles were once a common sight in the skies throughout North America, including the Great Lakes’ shorelines. Since the 1500s, however, habitat loss and persecution seriously depleted Bald Eagle populations. In the early decades of the last century, wildlife conservationists alerted American authorities to the possibility of extinction for this species. The government responded by passing the United States Bald Eagle Act of 1940, which reduced direct killing of the birds and helped to slow the population downturn.
Since then, some regions maintained excellent habitat, supporting local, healthy breeding populations. Bald Eagles thrive along the coastlines of British Columbia and Alaska, and throughout the boreal forests of northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. But heavy development in other areas, such as the Great Lakes, has diminished eagle nesting habitat and foraging opportunities.
Bald Eagles were in danger of disappearing completely from the Great Lakes region. In the early 1900s, an estimated 200 pairs nested in southern Ontario, from the Ottawa River to the lower Great Lakes. Some 50 pairs were said to nest on the shores of Lake Erie alone. By the late 1970s, eagle pairs nesting on Lake Erie’s shorelines produced no young. Three active pairs were noted on Lake Superior, but they did not reproduce. The situation was equally dire on Lake Ontario, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake St. Clair, and along the St. Lawrence River.
The birds, it was discovered, were suffering from exposure to a silent killer: pesticides. The most infamous, DDT, or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, was sprayed regularly along setlands, shorelines and in agricultural areas, from the late 1940s to the 1970s. The toxic residue left behind interfered with the eagles’ ability to reproduce – with devastating consequences.
From the early 1980s, coincident with a significant reduction in the use of toxic chemicals around the Great Lakes, the eagles’ natural reproduction rates began to climb. Concurrently, private organizations and government agencies developed conservation programs to protect nesting sites and to re-establish adequate breeding populations. Volunteers and landowners provided critical assistance to these programs over subsequent years, primarily by monitoring nest sites to determine their level of activity and reproductive status.
Today, Great Lakes Bald Eagles are recovering slowly. Across southern Ontario in 2000, 28 eaglets were known to fledge, or successfully develop to the point of leaving the nest, from 18 of 23 active nests. Finally, the outlook is positive for these magnificent hunters.
There is more work to do to ensure that the Bald Eagle population is a healthy and viable one. Typically, less than half of eaglets hatched reach maturity, and survival rates may dip as low as 10 percent. Bald Eagles normally produce two or three eggs and fledge one or two chicks. One chick per active nest is adequate to sustain the population, yet each bird potentially faces many obstacles on the way to maturity. Challenges include harsh weather, poor food supplies, persistent (non-biodegrading) contaminants in the environment, and human-caused deaths.