Friday, July 28, 2006

Audubon Mailing

There has been a discussion over at Wildbird on the Fly about whether a recent membership mailing from the National Audubon Society is misleading. Here is the mailing in question, for anyone who has not seen it.


Amy argues that it is misleading because bald eagles have actually largely recovered from their midcentury losses. I also found this mailing strange when I first received it. Christmas Bird Counts show a steady growth in the bald eagle population over the past fifty years. In the DC area, at least, it seems that some breeding eagles are running out of elbow room because of competition from others. So it is hard to claim that eagles are running out of time.

At the same time, there are plenty of other birds that are in serious danger. As one commenter at Amy's blog noted, Audubon just published a list of the Top Ten Endangered Birds in the Continental United States, none of which was a bald eagle. Two other birds not on that list, red knot and cerulean warbler, are also in more serious trouble than eagles. So it does seem that there could have been a better choice of images.