Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/112499
eagles. But I could find only three nesting pairs in all of Greater Vancouver, absolutely none in the Fraser Valley and none down the entire coast of Washington state.��� At that time the bald eagle was an endangered species in the U.S., its population reduced from an estimated half a million in the early 18th century to just 417 nesting pairs in 1963 in the lower 48 states. For decades, Americans had waged war on their national bird with a grim vengeance. They were shot from airplanes, poisoned in some states and fed to hogs in others. In 1917 in Alaska, where eagles were perceived as a threat to the fishing industry, a bounty was placed on the birds: 50 cents for each pair of talons delivered, a price that later rose to $1, then $2. Finally, in 1940, the U.S. Congress passed a law that made killing a bald eagle illegal. But Alaska gained an exclusion from the act and the slaughter continued until 1953, when the state���s exemption was repealed. By that time bounties had already been paid on 128,000 pairs of bald eagle talons. And even after hunting ceased, the population decline continued, thanks to the widespread use of DDT, which seeped into lakes and streams and into fish, harming adult birds and their eggs. It was not until 1972, when the insecticide was banned, that the bald eagle���s recovery began. For Hancock, this change in attitude ��� toward not only eagles but predators of all kinds ��� has been dramatic. ���Eagles were once regarded as vermin, something that should be eliminated,��� he recalls, noting that the same sort of thinking applied to wolves and bears and orcas until the late 1960s. ���But today we recognize that a healthy predator population means a healthy ecosystem . . .��� Our conversation is suddenly interrupted by an explosion of eagles from a grove of cottonwoods. As the boat slows and windows fly open, the sound of the baldies��� high-pitched chittering rushes inside along with a blast of cold air. High above, birds with wingspans as broad as dining room tables soar and wheel crazily in the sky. ���During mating season, they engage in a ritual called ���cartwheeling,��� ��� notes Hancock. ���A pair will fly up high, lock talons, then tumble in a death-defying plunge. Just before hitting the ground, they disengage.��� Public perception of these regal birds continues to evolve as we learn even more about their behaviour. It���s a process Hancock remains closely involved with through his non-profit Hancock Wildlife Foundation, which began broadcasting live images from bald eagle nests over the Internet in 2006. That initial camera, mounted next to a Hornby Island nest, provoked a startling response. Hancock suspected that perhaps 100 or so researchers would be interested, but the site quickly attracted millions of hits daily. Today, the foundation monitors several eagle-nesting sites in B.C. that enable eagle-watchers worldwide to observe intimate behaviour previously unavailable even to scientists in the field, including interactions between males and females in their nests, egg laying, hatchings and, thanks to infrared sensors, unexpected events such as a nocturnal attack by a great horned owl (see photo of the owl, page 24). Video-cam activities are also catalogued and discussed in detail in the foundation���s website forums, a phenomenon Hancock refers to as ���citizen science.��� STARING AT NESTING EAGLES on a computer screen may not appeal to everyone, but there is an addictive kick to watching these aerial predators cavort in nature. By the time our 90-minute river tour concludes, I���m hooked. I drive out to the Tapadera Estates viewing site beside the Chehalis alluvial flats, a starkly beautiful landscape ideal for photography, with plenty of bald eagles scavenging in the muddy shallows. But there is also a wind blowing up the valley that quickly turns exposed fingers to icicles and makes focusing a challenge. I spend 20 minutes enduring the chill with a few hardy souls, then retreat to where volunteers have set up barrels of burning wood to warm shivering spectators. Nearby, Delta���s Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (O.W.L.) is displaying two of its education birds: Snoopy, a brain-damaged northern saw-whet owl, and Sonsie, a male bald eagle. Found as a baby by a northern fishing crew, Sonsie is now so imprinted on humans he can never be released.��Still, though he is accustomed to humans (he may even think he is one), there is nothing domesticated about the bird���s demeanour. His pierc- (���cartwheeling��� and nesting bald eagles) Christian Sasse, (riverside bald eagle) David Hancock/FVBEF p24-27_Eagles.indd 27 FAST FACTS . An eagle���s eyesight is eight times sharper than a human���s. Able to see both forward and to the side at the same time, the bird can spot the glint of a herring in water from half a kilometre away. . In a dive, the birds reach speeds of up to 160 km/h. . Once they mate, eagles remain together until one dies. . Bald eagles aren���t actually bald (���balde��� is a term early colonists used for ���white���). In fact, they have about 7,000 feathers. . Though they use their talons to ���sh, eagles get many meals by scavenging carrion or stealing the kills of other birds. . The bird���s average life span is 15 to 20 years. . Eagles do not have vocal chords. They make shrill squeaking and screeching sounds by pushing air through the syrinx, a bony chamber in their necks. . Bald-eagle nests are as large as four metres deep, 2.5 metres wide and one metric tonne in weight. . The birds reach full size in just 12 weeks, but do not attain full maturity until four or ���ve years of age. Because parents abandon their young before they learn to hunt, only one in 10 survive until adulthood. ing stare, hooked beak and razor-sharp talons lend him an intimidating aura, and it���s easy to understand why eagles are so often used as military emblems. Handler Rob Hope lifts Sonsie up on his outstretched arm and the cameras click, but no one gets too close. It���s difficult to accept that Sonsie has lost his freedom, yet he lives a pampered life compared to his free-flying brethren. Even in the best of times, only one in 10 hatchlings survive to adulthood. The bald eagle may represent the most successful recovery of any endangered species in North America, but it still faces threats from habitat destruction, oil pollution, toxic chemicals and electrocution from power lines. In B.C., the bird���s continued existence also remains dependent upon the presence of strong, annual salmon runs and wild spaces such as the magical stretch of the Harrison River we explored this morning ��� a place where, despite our distance from the eagles, I felt connected with something much larger than myself. It���s a good feeling, and I carry it with me like a secret gift all the way back home. A visit to raptor rehab: bcaa.com/raptors WESTWORLD >> FA L L 2 0 1 2 27 12-08-17 1:46 PM