At 08:34 PM 11/8/98 -0800, Herb Curl wrote:

>Bald Eagles are only too happy to have a duck dinner. They usually dine
>on carrion, which is unfortunate, since there's the likelihood of
>engesting lead pellets from a crippled duck.

The current insistence on steel or other substitute shot has pretty much
ended this particular concern. The studies I'm aware of (not all that many,
I admit) seem to indicate that older shot is buried in sediment where it's
not readily ingested by waterfowl.

So to some extent, at least, your comment is obsolete. Though ten years
ago it was all too true. We do make progress, occasionally. The USF&W
wanted to end lead shot for a long time, or at least it appeared to me that
they did, due to lead poisoning of waterfowl. It took recognition that
baldies were also suffering due to consumption of waterfowl carrion (in
particular those dead, or not-strictly-carrion incapacitated, due to lead
poisoning) to bring the force of federal law into play resulting in the
ban.

> Catching them on the fly is
>pretty tough for such a big bird but they can pluck them off the water
>pretty easily. Puddle ducks and coots are especially vulnerable.

During last year's PAS birdathon, folks in my group watched a young baldie
take a Canada goose, flying off with it. Much to our amazement. It
happened some distance away, and it was probably a cackler (or, at least
the raptor person part of me refuses to believe it could've flown off
with a 8 or 10 or 12 lb goose of a larger subspecies!).



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net