Bald eagles make comeback in Connecticut

FALLS VILLAGE  — Ginny Apple came to the Hunt Library Saturday, Dec. 16, with good news.

The bald eagle is alive and well in Connecticut.

Apple is a master wildlife conservationist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. She gives dozens of talks per year, accompanied by slideshows that feature stunning photography, much of it from her network of friends who just happen to be professional wildlife photographers.

Apple noted that the bald eagle is a national symbol but is not the national bird. (There is no national bird, she added.)

She pointed to the bald eagle’s revival as one of the great success stories of environmental laws.

The bald eagle suffered greatly from being shot in great numbers in the Colonial and post-Revolutionary periods. Industrial development resulting in loss of habitat did not help. Neither did the use of the pesticide DDT, which affected the ecosystem in such a way as to cause a decline in bald eagles and many other species.

The once prolific and numerous bald eagles were almost gone from the lower 48 states by the 1960s, she said.

Starting with the federal Endangered Species Act in 1973, a ban on DDT, and reintroduction programs, the bird recovered.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the bald eagle from “endangered” to “threatened” in 1995 for the lower 48, and in 2007, the bald eagle was removed from the federal endangered species list. Apple noted that bald eagles — and other species — are still protected under federal legislation passed in 1940 and by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Closer to home, Apple showed several graphics demonstrating how bald eagles have become a fairly routine sight in Connecticut, nesting in unlikely places such as near a shopping center in Hamden.

Every January, DEEP volunteers go out in the field looking for bald eagle nests. In 2021, they spotted some 215 eagles. Back in the early ‘90s, the volunteers felt lucky to spot one.

Despite the significant progress, Apple said the bald eagle still faces challenges. Wind turbines kill all sorts of birds. Rodent poisons and lead shot — used by hunters — also find their way into the ecosystem.

Power lines are also a problem. Apple showed a photo of a lineman installing a triangular device on a power line pole designed to prevent perching next to the live wires.

Apple played two audio clips. The first was a shrieking sound. The second was more of a chirrup.

She asked the audience to guess which sound was a bald eagle and which was a red-tailed hawk.

The shriek was the hawk, not the eagle.

Apple said popular nature television programs do a lot of good by educating people about wildlife, but sometimes the producers can’t resist substituting the dramatic shriek for the more sedate chirruping sound.