Travel Photo Thursday: Capturing “Big Bird”
In 1782, the bald eagle was chosen as the the national emblem of the United States. Tens of thousands lived in the country then, but within a hundred years they had become scarce.
The widespread use of the pesticide DDT almost wiped them out; a mere 417 nesting pairs were found in 1963.
I’ve seen numerous eagles wintering near the bird refuges in the Klamath Basin along the Oregon-California border. You can find them as far south as Southern California. And a couple of years ago, while hiking near my home just north of San Francisco, I looked up just as a bald eagle scooped a fish out of mid-air after forcing a smaller osprey to drop the meal it had clutched in its talons.
But the best place I’ve been to for viewing bald eagles is southeast Alaska, where they seem as common as crows or starlings in the Lower 48 states.
