The Biggest Bird on the Beach
If you are from the Oregon Coast, you know that bald eagles are seen in great abundance along the shore. But this hasn’t always been the case. In the past, bald eagles had such low population numbers that they were put on the endangered species list. Before 1972, DDT was a popular pesticide that was used all over the country. In coastal areas, the chemicals in this pesticide would end up in the ocean, building up in fish populations that eagles and other large raptors would then prey upon. The chemicals used in DDT would soften eggshells, making bald eagle reproduction success rate very low. Once the use of these chemicals was banned in the United States, eagle numbers began to rise and they were eventually switched from the endangered species to threatened species. It wasn’t until 2007 that eagle numbers were high enough to remove the bird from both endangered species and threatened species lists. Nowadays, with such a large abundance of seabirds, like those seen at Ha...