CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNTS

Bald Eagle Numbers Soaring

By Bill Schneider, 12-28-05

The comeback of the bald eagle isn’t exactly news. For decades, the successful efforts to get America’s symbol off the endangered species list have been well chronicled, but the extent of the comeback is another story.

Today, December 28, the thirty-second anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, the Montana Audubon released the results of its annual Audubon Society Christmas bird counts, a tradition going back more than a hundred years. These hardy birders have been counting bald eagles since 1975, when they only found 40 birds in seven communities. But in 2001, they counted 756 birds in 30 communities, and the count has stayed high—still 549 in 2004, the last year for which numbers have been published.

The number of birders has soared, too, of course. Even when factoring in more birders, the number of eagles counted has increased by at least 500 percent.

“The bald eagle is more than a mere bird – it’s a symbol of the United States and a conservation success story,� said Dan Casey, biologist with the American Bird Conservancy in Kalispell in a news release. “More and more Montanans are able to enjoy the thrill of watching of a soaring bald eagle, thanks to conservation measures like the Endangered Species Act.�

The bald eagle was declared “endangered� in 1978 and upgraded to “threatened� in 1999, with plans afoot to remove the country’s most well known raptor from the protection of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Ironically, instead of celebrating successes like the bald eagle the ESA has given us, Congress is now re-writing it with the intent of weakening the landmark legislation.

Footnote: Republican President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law on December 28, 1973. We all know that would never happen nowadays because our president would be on vacation.

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