On Tue, 10 Feb 1998, Don Baccus wrote:
> doing so longer and also at different times of day. It was clear that eagles
> avoided fishing the river during those times of day when rafters were present
> (it's a heavily controlled river).
>
> It wasn't clear that this was affecting productivity, at least during the

The $64,000 question. The timing of this thread is great (for me), since
I am working on a list of WA species particularly sensitive to human
impacts. The Bald Eagle was one of the species we had the biggest
arguement over. Assuming DDT continues to be banned in the US, and
whole-sale raptor slaughter continues to be illegal, should the Bald Eagle
be on that list? Numbers in WA are evidently rising or remaining stable
and B. Eagle populations are high.

Eagle behavioral differences when people are present are noteworthy,
but don't necessarily indicate an effect on productivity. Feeding and
activity patterns of Canada Geese and Mallards in Seattle parks are
undoubtedly affected by joggers, kite-flyers, dogs, softball games, etc.
(There are times when they actually have to FLY!) Would their
productivity be higher without disturbances? COULD it be any higher?

David Manuwal suggested there might now be a bimodal pattern to eagle
responses to people: some eagles will ignore almost anything people do,
others are still very shy. I suspect that in a bird as long-lived as an
eagle, learning might be happening, too.

Kelly Cassidy -- Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Box 357980, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195