MEADVILLE — “FREE AMMO” said the ad in the Oct. 26 edition of Jackson Hole Daily that I picked up on my recent elk hunt in Wyoming. It sounded too good to be true — but it was. A conservation group was offering Jackson Hole area elk hunters free ammunition with non-lead bullets in an effort to reduce lead poisoning of bald and golden eagles.

Lead poisoning of eagles and other birds of prey is a long-standing problem that has been irrefutably documented by veterinarians and many others. Birds of prey often forego their superb hunting skills and take an easy meal at an already dead animal. If that animal was killed with a lead bullet or lead shot, the bird of prey that feeds on it is at risk.

Even the minutest particles of lead can sicken a bird of prey, because their caustic digestive processes put the lead in soluble form readily taken up in their blood. Ironically, this inadvertent, unintended delivery of systemic lead is far deadlier to them than would be a pellet or two lodged in their flesh from the shot of some uncaring vandal.

I have been aware of issues surrounding lead poisoning in birds of prey for a long time. That catchy ad in the Jackson Hole paper reminded me of how pervasive the problem is, but a recent incident with a Bald Eagle on my own farm literally and figuratively brought it home.

Bald eagles frequent our farm and many other areas along Cussewago Creek. My wife Joan or I usually see one or more on most days as they soar above the creek bottom or perch in dead trees. We see immature as well as adult eagles, a good sign that they are nesting successfully in the Cussewago bottoms.

An eagle at any distance is a thrill to see, but seeing one up close is special. At close range, a large, mature, female bald eagle appears positively massive, standing 30 inches tall with an 80-inch wingspan. Up close, one can fully appreciate her penetrating eyes, her heavy hooked beak, and her powerful feet sporting long, deadly talons. All of these features, save the talons, are bright yellow, a nice accent to her boldly contrasting white head, white tail and brown body. Awesome might be a trite word these days, but it still says it all about a bald eagle. With all her beauty, power and majesty, the bald eagle is truly a fitting symbol for our great nation.

In the recent incident alluded to above, I got a very up close look at a bald eagle on our farm. This encounter was different, though, for the bird was grounded, sitting on a log in some brush about 25 feet from me. Her posture was stooped, and her feathers unkempt. Her beak was pale, and the fire in her eyes was gone. She was too weak to fly. It was all she could do to move her head and look to me. There was no majesty left to her. She was sick, very sick.

It was such an unusual, unexpected circumstance that I may not even have noticed her had I not heard her cry. It was a faint, plaintive, infantile bird cry, a barely audible wheeeeee that trailed off to nothingness. As a wildlife biologist, farmer and hunter, I am not often given to notions of anthropomorphism ascribing cognitive behaviors or feelings to wild animals. But believe me, this eagle seemed to be crying to me for help.



Call to Tamarack

I could well have cried for her, but was compelled to help. I consulted Joan who has considerable knowledge of bald eagles, and we concluded that the best thing that we could do would be to get the eagle to a wildlife care facility that had access to professional veterinary help. We called the Tamarack Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center. Within the hour, Tamarack’s Sue DeArment was at our farm.

Sue is an expert at handling and caring for birds of prey. She put a sheet over the eagle, then gently but firmly took control of the bird’s potentially dangerous feet. Sue next folded and restrained the eagle’s wings in their natural closed position, and then put her safely and securely in a box for transport. It did not take more than a minute or two to capture the eagle, and shortly she was on her way to Tamarack for treatment.

As they left, Joan and I silently wished the eagle well, but we were not optimistic about her chances for recovery. We both knew that eagles in that poor condition often are found to be suffering from lead poisoning. Indeed, the next day Sue called, sadly reporting that a blood test had determined that the level of lead found in the sick eagle’s body was “off the charts.”

The eagle died that day. Diagnostic tests conducted later by the University of Georgia’s Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Study confirmed that she was the second bald eagle to have died of lead poisoning in the Cussewago Valley within the month.

In the days after the eagle died, I pondered how she might have been exposed to lead. She could have gotten an acute dose from feeding on the remains of a deer killed in one of the short, early gun seasons in October. Or she might somehow have found and consumed a small game animal that had been shot and lost. Either was possible, but neither seemed probable. There simply is not a lot of hunting in our neighborhood during those early seasons.

As I thought more about it, I began to suspect that our eagle had gradually accumulated a lethal dose of lead from feeding on woodchucks shot and left in the fields in our neighborhood. Woodchucks abound in our neighborhood and are a bane to me and other farmers. In our case, they eat crops, dig holes in fields and undermine the floor in our barn. I do not dislike woodchucks, and I would be saddened if there were none at all. However, as a matter of practicality, I hunt them to keep their numbers down. I do not leave them in the field, however. Knowing of the risk to eagles, I dispose of my woodchucks in a manner that minimizes the chances that an eagle will find and feed on them.

Unfortunately, many woodchucks shot by others in our neighborhood are left in the open fields where the eagles quickly find and feed on them, becoming exposed to the lead. When we see an eagle at a woodchuck carcass, we have taken to chasing the bird off and disposing of the carcass down a burrow. But there is a limit to how much policing two people can do.



We must do more

But do more we must if we wish to have a healthy population of bald eagles. After the sad experience with a Bald Eagle on my own farm, I am resolved to do a number of things.

I already did the first. I sent a contribution to Tamarack Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center, 21601 Stull Road, Saegertown, Pa. 16433. They could not save our eagle, but with your and my support, they will save others.

Come Monday after Thanksgiving, if I am fortunate to get a deer, I will try not to leave lead contaminated portions of the remains where an eagle might find them.

Next summer I will redouble my efforts to dispose of woodchucks that I shoot, burying them if necessary. I hate the thought that, much as I have tried to keep woodchuck carcasses from eagles, maybe another predator found one of mine and dragged it into the open where an eagle got to it.

Next summer, I will talk to other hunters and farmers, letting them know that when they leave a shot woodchuck in the field they are unwittingly exposing eagles to lead poisoning. I say unwittingly, because no responsible person would consciously put a bald eagle at risk just to avoid the little added effort of proper disposal of the woodchuck carcass.

Finally, when nontoxic bullets become available in more calibers and varieties, I will gladly convert to using them when hunting. To their credit, ammunition manufacturers are working on the problem, and society, including hunters, will eventually get behind the effort. We got the lead out of paint and gasoline to the betterment of human health and the environment. And, while it took 20 years of research, development and education to convert to nontoxic shot, we got the lead out of waterfowl hunting, saving untold thousands of birds from lead poisoning.

I am resolved to do all of this, because I do not want to see any more lead sick eagles crying in despair. Like the nation that they symbolize, I want my eagles strong, noble and free, soaring high and crying their might.



Tautin is a Conneautville resident.