The Bald Eagle Is Making A Huge Comeback Here In Maine

When I was growing up, it seemed like seeing a bald eagle was about as likely as seeing a unicorn. In my mind, they were so rare around these parts, they were pretty much a mythical creature out of a fantasy novel. Honestly, I don't think I ever saw one with my own eyes until I was around 18 years old. and then, it felt like witnessing an unearthly, magical event.

Fast forward several, ahem, years....and now they are seemingly everywhere! Now, I'm not sating that they're about to become the new pigeon or seagull, but you see them in fairly common places these days.

Around the Bangor area, I've seen them near the Chamberlain Bridge, quite a bit out at my camp in Eddington, and along the Kenduskeag Stream. In fact, remember this story from a while back about "Mom Bangor", the eagle living by the Kenduskeag that died of lead poisoning? Poor thing. That was a sad day.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife put out a press release yesterday via Maine.gov stating that eagles have gone from just 21 nesting pairs back in 1967, to almost 750 nesting pairs. Wardens and field biologists have spent a significant amount of time and effort researching the comeback of the Bald Eagle, and have seen major growth in the population, with no indication that it will slow any time soon.

I have to say, if you've never seen an eagle in person, it really never gets old. Maybe it's because I'm old enough to remember when there were almost none. Or maybe because they're our national bird, and they're just simply awesome. Either way, it's nice to see an animal so close to extinction, brought back to big numbers. We need more nice things to happen.