Text Box: It is a little too cool to be on the deck today, so I will stay inside where it is warmer. It is so foggy I couldn’t see an eagle a quarter mile away, even if it was there. It was foggy for our first Bald Eagle Bus Tour for the year, but not this bad. It just prevented us from seeing any eagle nests from on top of the bluff because they are over 1 mile from the bluff. We did see 27 adults, 4 immatures and 1 unknown. We would not have seen that many except for one man who had thrown some dead deer, coons and possums out in his field. Almost half of the eagles seen were near his place. Other wise it would have been one of the poorest numbers of eagles we have ever seen on a bus tour. The eagle numbers seem to be reflecting what I have been saying for the past few years, the numbers of bald eagles on the Mississippi River are declining. My concern is that they appear to be declining at a rate that is faster than I had predicted. Now other people are seeing and documenting the same decline. But just a few are getting concerned. They want to live behind the statement that the trend over the past 20 years has in a positive direction. The public coming to Bald Eagle Days at Lock & Dam #13 saw only 15 eagles, where last year they saw over 450. Those coming to Muscatine, IA, Lock and Dam #18, for their Eagle Days saw only a handful. The airplane counters flying from St. Louis to Quincy counted the fewest on their first flight that they had seen for many years. In this issue you can read some of the stories about the eagles along the Mississippi, but also I have included a news story out of Florida, where they are trying to save their birds. This is in sharp contrast to Illinois where IDNR allows strip mines and highways to destroy bald eagle habitat, even that which they own and are supposed to be protecting. I have so many hearings and problems which I need to attend and/or address in the next few weeks it is almost overwhelming: the IL Attorney General’s lawsuit against the IDNR for how they mishandled the Banner Strip Mine Permit; the hearing for the Petition declaring the Banner Mine Site Unsuitable for Strip Mining; the Army Corps hearing to destroy the trees along the river near Rice Lake so they can construct a levee along the river; and hearing after hearing at the Savanna Army Depot as the Army tries to deed land that has not been cleaned up to new owners. (As long as EPA will lower their standards many of the polluted sites do not need to be cleaned up). Each of these issues needs to addressed in some fashion or another. Add to this the problems ENF is facing; getting a larger board of directors, deciding how large that board will be, what we can do to increase membership and income and what steps we can take to insure the future of the bald eagle. So far we have had three members step to the plate to be potential board members. If we had more volunteers step forward, perhaps we could increase the board size to 11 or 13, rather than just setting the size at 9. The regular board meetings are scheduled for Saturdays, just 4 times a year, with the next meeting set for Feb. 6 in Dixon, IL. In addition the board members, when possible, help with our many activi- ties. We are still looking for members to volunteer. We need more help or we may not be able to save our bald eagle. Are you interested? Let me know! We are presently busy perparing all of our end of the year financial reports and inventories and tax forms. All of this in addtion to the normal activities of getting the Nature News published and mailed, arranging for help for our Mid-Winter Bald Eagle Count, taking reservations for the upcoming bus tours and selling bird seed to the public who walk in the front door. Too bad I cannot find anything to do! You don’t have to be a board member to join a bus tour or attend our annual meeting. We need you. ■

  Nature News

JANuary 2010

Volume 16, No. 1                                                                                                         Semi-Annual

Phone: 815-594-2306                                                                         Tax Exempt No. 36-4015400

Homepage: eaglenature.com                                                  e-mail: eaglenature.tni@juno.com
Text Box: Published by the Eagle Nature Foundation Text Box: Drippings From the Deck Text Box: 1 Text Box: Status of the Bald Eagle By Terrence N. Ingram Text Box: What is the real status of the bald eagle? That is the question for which we need to find an answer. The historic bald eagle communities which we visit on our bus tours keep decreasing in numbers. Two of them have lost all of the 40 or 50 birds that once were there throughout many winters. First the percentage of young decrease, then the number of young decrease, then the number of adults start to decline, soon all of the immatures are gone and gradually the number of adults decreases to zero. This same thing seems to be occurring in other communities of bald eagles as well. Many people do not see this as these communities may be supplemented with migrating birds as other communities migrate through going South or North. They just see bald eagles and make their management decisions based on the number of bald eagles they see. Because of this we are getting management decisions made by government agencies that are not helping the bald eagle. They keep bragging about the fact that we have brought the bald eagle back from the brink of extinction. They say that banning DDT saved