SHORELINES

14 Shor e l i n e S | 2014 Vol :1 Pat Reed was cruising along a bridge on Lake Martin one sunny winter afternoon five years ago when a bald eagle swooped down beside her at eye level. The majestic raptor glided beside the passenger side of her car for several hundred feet before peeling off and soaring toward the clear blue sky. "It was just thrilling to her," recalls her husband, Bob, editor of the Alabama Ornithological Society's newsletter, The Yellowhammer. "We are believers in God. She felt like God had given her that gift." For the Reeds, long time bird- watchers who live in Tallassee, the encounter was a sure sign of the resurgence of the bald eagle in Alabama. The resurgence is evident on Alabama Power lakes, where they've become easier to spot in recent years. Bald eagles once thrived in A labama and throughout much of the continental United States. Their numbers began to decline steadily in the mid-1800s because of several factors, including loss of habitat and shootings by farmers who blamed them for killing poultr y and small livestock. But it was the introduction of DDT in 1940 that accelerated the decline of the bald eagle. DDT, a pesticide, served a variety of public health uses, including the eradication of malaria and control of body lice, typhus and the bubonic plague. Growers also used DDT on crops, including corn, cotton, beans and Brussels sprouts to fight off insects. But the use of DDT had some major downsides – such as the decimation of raptors including the bald eagle. "Substances like DDT move up the food chain," explains Chad Fitch, Environmental Affairs specialist at Alabama Power. "DDT was (sprayed) on plants to get rid of insects. Some of the DDT got washed in the river. It was absorbed by algae and the algae were eaten by fish. The DDT got into fish flesh and the fish was eaten by eagles. So the female Above: Photo by Dennis tr ammell, Weiss lake shoreline manaGer — A bald eagle roosts in a pine tree on Weiss Lake, where eagles have settled for more than a decade.

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