NOVEMBER 2018 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 83
BALD EAGLES:
SPIRIT OF AMERICA
By JUNGLE BOB
Growing up on Long Island in
the 1960s, I had the pleasure of seeing
many wide-open spaces with
abundant wildlife. Yearning for
more, I devoured animal books and
dreamed of seeing lions, hippos,
polar bears, and perhaps a raptor.
Their name stems from the Latin
rapere, meaning to seize or take by
force. Raptors are birds of prey such
as hawks, falcons, owls and eagles.
With keen eyesight and razor-sharp
talons, raptors rule the skies and fascinated
me at an early age — although
it was unlikely that I would see one
from my suburban perch. Once
abundant, raptors were tragically
decimated when the pesticide DDT
weakened their egg shells, which
broke or failed to hatch in their nests.
“Using DDT to control mosquitoes
was like torpedoing the QE2 to get rid
of the rats on board,” said
Dennis Puleston, a local
environmentalist.
His persistence and the
efforts of Silent Spring author
Rachel Carson prompted a nationwide
DDT ban. The ban worked
and slowly raptors’ numbers grew.
Red-tailed hawks were the first I
spied and they are now commonly
seen perched on parkway light poles.
Ospreys, aka fish hawks or sea
eagles, are now routinely found
along our shores in summer. Birdlovers
erect poles with platforms
for ospreys to build their magnificent
nests. This bird is found on
every continent but Antartica and
migrates great distances, returning
to LI each spring to raise their young.
The raptor species list is long,
but the granddaddy of them all,
the bald eagle, soars across LI skies
once again. Designated our national
symbol in 1782, bald eagles
once blanketed America
with hundreds of thousands
of nesting
pairs.
Their collapse
began
w h e n
farmers and fishermen shot
bald eagles to “protect their
livelihoods.”
Standing three feet tall with sixfoot
wingspans, they require large
trees to nest; habitat loss further
reduced their numbers. DDT nearly
delivered the final blow when fewer
than 500 nesting pairs remained
nationwide in the ’60s.
I saw a bald eagle in the skies
over my Islip home recently. I’ve
seen a lot of wildlife in dozens of
countries, but this sighting choked
me up. Seeing its wings spread,
talons dangling, that magnificent
white head of feathers, eyes piercing,
was like a dream come
true for me. I
understood why our forefathers
selected it to represent America.
We live in politically polarizing
times, but we should stop, look up
and be thankful for who we are,
what we have, and what this bird
represents: strength, dignity, and
tenacity.
PRESS PETS
Bald eagles soar over LI once more. (Shutterstock)
Bald Eagles have been making a comeback nationwide. (Shutterstock)