In honor of tomorrow's Fourth of July holiday, this week's edition of #RBWinterWildlifeWednesday features perhaps the most iconic wildlife species found in the park: the Bald Eagle!
With their large body, massive wingspan, and distinctive adult coloring, Bald Eagles are one of the most well-known and easily identifiable wildlife species in North America. They can primarily be found near large bodies of open water, including lakes, rivers, and coastal regions, where they have ample access to their primary food source: fish. At R. B. Winter State Park, they can often be seen perched in trees around the lake, using their excellent eyesight to look for fish swimming near the water's surface. Upon spotting potential prey, they'll take flight and usually circle the lake several times before swooping down low over the water and snatching a fish with their long talons.
Bald Eagles were once a common sight across much of North America, with an estimated population of 300,000 to 500,000 individuals across the continent in the early 1700s. By the mid-1900s, various factors, including habitat destruction, unrestricted logging, wanton killing, and the use of chemical pesticides like DDT, caused Bald Eagle populations to plummet. By the 1980s, only three pairs of Bald Eagles were known to be nesting in Pennsylvania. In 1967, Bald Eagles were added to the Endangered Species List, and in 1972, DDT was banned in the United States allowing their populations to begin to recover.
In the early 1980s, the Pennsylvania Game Commission began a successful reintroduction program, and by the time Bald Eagles were removed from the Endangered Species list in 2007, more than 150 pairs were known to be nesting across the state, with an estimated additional 10,000 pairs nesting in other areas of the United States. Today, the US Fish and Wildlife Service estimates there are more than 300,000 Bald Eagles, including over 70,000 nesting pairs, across the lower 48 states! Just a generation or two ago most Americans would only ever have the opportunity to see a Bald Eagle in a zoo or on tv, today it is not uncommon to see Bald Eagles soaring high in the skies above Penns Woods.
To learn more about these majestic animals and their return from the brink of extinction, visit their section of the Pennsylvania Game Commission website: https://www.pgc.pa.gov/.../Endangere.../Pages/BaldEagle.aspx
Picture by Friends of R. B. Winter State Park Board Member Kyle Fawcett
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