Michael Price wrote:

> Eagles are usually not the shyest of birds--ask the pair that set up
> their eyrie in a tree directly beside Highway 10 in Ladner BC, one
> of the busiest highways in Greater Vancouver. Or the ones that simply
> glare grumpily down at you from a tree you happen to be walking
> under. Not to say that non-urban eagles aren't a little warier, but usually
> it would take a combined tractor-pull contest and drag race in the next
> field over to disturb the average eagle ...

Interesting comments, particularly in view of the results of Mark Stalmaster's
research on the Skagit River which found that Bald Eagles were being
disturbed by bank fishers, driftboat fishers, Eagle-watching rafters, and
others and that this disturbance was reducing feeding opportunities and
potentially compromising their survival or their condition going into the
following breeding season. Now, Dr. Stalmaster is the expert on Bald Eagle
energetics and food requirements so I would be foolish to argue his
conclusions. Needless to say, he recommended restrictions of human
activities on portions of the Skagit to reduce effects to overwintering
eagles.

However, Bald Eagles sometimes appear quite oblivious to the things going on
around them.

Ahh Biology, it's the jello of sciences, all squishy and wiggly and impossible
to get a firm grip on. As I have heard it put, "Biologists frequently suffer
from physics envy".

Kelly McAllister