have continued to do so as we do today. so i've been a member of tropical audubon society for over 30 years and found it just a great way as i move to miami to learn about our local region and the natural areas around here. so i encourage everyone to go to our website at tropical audubon.org and take a look at our events. we have field trips every weekend throughout the year bird trips mostly oft. to go see eagles because of course as birders. we do see eagles regularly and a few people really have recognized that florida has one of the largest concentrations of bald eagles and the united states we have over 1,500 nesting nesting pairs and audubon in general has a program called eagle watch and these are people that keep an eye on eagles nests and just monitor them for making sure that the eagles are safe as they grow and we actually have a nest right here in south florida. not far from where we sit right now. um, this pair of eagles is nested pretty regularly here and um last year, they nested with two eaglets, but unfortunately had a loss of one eaglet as it fell and then a second following out of the nest suffered a broken wing luckily because of the audubon eagle watched we were aware of this and two of our local heroes gentlemen by the name of lloyd brown and ron mcgill save the eglet rehabilitated it and released it in near everglades national park. um, they also decided to climb up there and stabilize and and really secured this nest and while they were up there. they put up a couple cameras. so another thing i encourage you to do is go to sue miami eagle watch or eagle tv. either way, you can't miss it and it will show you live pictures of the nest as we speak. it's a wonderful nighttime camera as well. you will those who eaglets sleeping. up up and down. they're actually quite big right now and still have about four weeks before they fledged. so i encourage everyone to go on to that eagle cam and watch the excitement of the mom and dad whose names are ron and rita and the two eglets are one and r2. so that's our local story of the bald eagle. so let me introduce you to our author jack davis is an environmental historian who is a pulitzer prize-winning author with the book the gulf the making of an american sea but i also want to tell you about his other books and everglades provenance. marjory stoneman douglas and the american environmental century, and of course now the bald eagle the improbable journey of an american bird this in this book jack tracks the history of our great national symbol and it's ups and downs along with the history of america and our relationship to the natural world. with these titles. it's no surprise that jack lives right here in florida, and it is great with great honor that i introduce the rothman family chair in the humanities at the university of florida, which is my alma mater. let's welcome jackie davis thank you. by the way, 1947 when as you know when tropical audubon was started was a watershed year for south florida. of course, that's the year in which everybody's national park was dedicated. it's also the year just a few weeks for the part was dedicated that margie stoneman douglas published the everglades river of grass. and as joe said i wrote this book about martin stoneman king and she had tremendous amount of respect for tropical audubon, and i think was her favorite organization next to of course friends of the everglades and the one she found it and joe browder too had tremendous respect for tropical audubon. not so much national, but definitely tropical audubon. and so thank you for what you do and and i of course we should thank florida audubon for their ego watch program, which is a very valuable program on many levels. i wanted to start first of all, thank thank you for coming out and a beautiful evening out there. i don't know why you're inside here with me, but i'm sure that you are. i want to start by telling you why i wrote this book and and i'm going to have a a pop quiz question for you, too. so i wrote this book for a number of reasons one. the after i finish the book on the gulf of mexico when i was looking around for another book. i realize that nobody had written other than scientists, you know bald eagle. i mean they're probably. a thousand or two thousand books on the bald eagle. most of them are pictured books children's books, you know coffee table books a number of signs of books and but as far as a cultural natural history of the bald eagle, nobody had written that story since 1996 in that book focuses really on the restoration period after ddt, very nice book written by bruce beans title eagles plume, but before that, the person who comes who wrote a more comprehensive. cultural and natural history, the bald eagle was from this area. and her name was anybody know polly. oh, i was supposed to ask you the name holly redford and you're familiar. poly redford. yes, and i believe she was involved with tropical, right? yeah, following redford award that we give out. okay. do you know about her and she published this book in 1963? why is 1963 a pivotal year in the history of bald eagles? somebody know other than poly redford's book, which is really about raccoons and in bald eagles. it was entitled eagle and raccoon. discuss 1963 was when the nesting population of bald eagle in the lower 48 reached his nadir across the lower 48 there according to a a population count conducted by audubon. there were only 487 nesting pairs in the lower 48. and coincidentally polony redford who lived it. i believe coconut grove. yes, and she was very good friends with marjor stoneman douglas. and she published her coincidentally published a book in 1963. so anyway, i saw a need there. to tell this story a lot has happened it just in the 21st century and in the history of the bald eagle, so that that was one reason the other reason is that i wanted as an environmental writer and i don't write for my colleagues. i don't write academic books. i write i write books for the general public and i wanted to write an environmental story. that would reach a broader audience than the usual audience that reads environmental books and primarily i wanted to reach across the political divide. i want to reach the broad political spectrum and you know who doesn't love the bald eagle right whether you're right red white and blue american or a bird or a tree hugger or all of those things together you love the bald eagle. it's one of those those birds when you see it cross in the sky. you poked a person in the ribs next to you and you know and point everybody gets excited when they see it baldi home and it really is a wonderful site, but also, when we reflect on our environmental past we tend to focus on riders or certainly guilty of those we tend to focus on the the grim and the tragic and you know, they're these doomsday stories we hear all the time and i wanted to give is a break from that and until an environmental story. that was a more positive uplifting story, you know, an environmental success story and the bald eagle is certainly that it has the its history the bald eagles history with the us has its certainly has this tragic moments horrific her horrific moments and but there are also a couple of redemption periods. i call him a redemption moments and and ultimately it's one of the great american conservation success stories. and so i wanted to tell that story to reach that broader audience. also, i didn't know much about the bald eagle before i started writing this book and learn of you know, and that's true with anybody riding a nonfiction you you learn a lot about your subject a lot of things you had no idea and you come across all sorts of surprises. the course. i knew it was on the make sure let's see if i can figure this out people commonly believe that ben franklin compared the the morality and that's the word he used or the bald eagle with with the wild turkey and described the bald eagle. is this rank coward and thief whereas the the turkey was a normal bird and he expressed his discontent with the bald eagle being a representative of the nation and he did do that in a letter to his daughter in 178 1784 and and then of course the story goes that he loves me for the bald eagle to be the national bird. she mean lobbied for the turkey to be the national bird that part of the story is not true. he never advocated the turkey. be on the seal in the united states or to be the national bird he did he was served on it honest on a committee in congress to design a seal along with thomas jefferson and and john adams, but he did not propose the turkey it proposed something entirely different and i'm not going to tell you what it was or who it was because i want you to read the book. and but and the other myth is we or the other misunderstanding about the bald eagle and the national bird is we don't have a national bird. a national bird has never been appointed if you will by congress or the president as as congress has selected the bison to be the national enamel and the oak to be the national tree congress has never anointed the bald eagle as the as the national bird. it is legitimately a national symbol and it's a powerful one as we know and it it required six years. three congressional committees and 14 men delegates in the continental congress as well as consultants and artists. to finally get to this there that committee i mentioned with jefferson adams and franklin that was the first committee that was appointed to design a seal and they failed miserably. and as in a second committee, as did a third committee and finally in 1782 charles thompson, who was the secretary of the continental congress? it took over and said we need to see hill where we're on the verge of becoming a legitimately independent nation. we're gonna we're gonna beat the you know, the pants off the british air and another couple years and we don't have a see a national seal and we need one. so he's the one who proposed putting the bald eagle on the national seal now eagles on coach of arms and and national coach of arms and and nation seals date back to the the ancients the greeks and and the romans but those all those eagles proceeding this one or non orthological they are just your generic eagle figure and that represent no particular species. and so this is the first one that represents a an actual species in thompson insisted that it be a balding or is he called it an american bald eagle be put on the seal and it's the appropriate bird for a couple of reasons one is that the bald eagle is only in north america? and there are only two eagles that live in north america the golden eagle and the bald eagle the golden eagle lives in the other parts of the northern hemisphere, but the bald eagle stays here unless it gets lost a couple bald eagles have showed up in ireland in in the past juveniles and you know isn't always the juveniles and but it lives only here and the other reason i argue that it was. the ideal image for the great seal of the united states is look at that look at the the countenance. look at the expression on that bird. you know it has that don't tread on me look, you know and the eye of an adult eagle is just about the size of an adult humans eye and if you've ever seen a bald eagle sitting in its nest an adult only go sinningness is had above the rim looking at it through a scope or binoculars. have you done this the eye is what really stands out. it's it's in you know when you're looking at it through a scope. it's looking right back at you and knows you're watching it and and it has this permanent ridge. this is super orbital bone above its eyes. and so it has this permanent ridge which serves as a sun visor for the bald eagle, but for us that's what gives it that stern look and so it courage sovereignty or freedom and so it was an ideal symbol for the united states. it wasn't a popular image before the great seal, but it became hugely popular, but unfortunately what wasn't as popular as the image of the bald eagle was the bald eagle itself the species. it's it's a it's a top predator or an apex predator and it was treated like any other predator at the time throughout the 19th century and early 20th century. and what did we do it predator? what did americans do it predators? they eradicated them the wolves the coyotes the bears and the mountain lions and the eagle. the bald eagle was one of those predators that they sought to eradicate a bald eagle scene was the bald eagle to be shot. because it was accused of stealing livestock. it'll still chickens. it'll take a chicken any day of the week chickens are like low-hanging fruit to them is one rancher a chicken rancher told me and they bet because they can carry away chicken. they're light enough for them too. they can lift at most five pounds a large eagle can lift about five pounds, but they were accused of flying away with calves and and in pigs and sheep all sorts of things all these reports of bald eagles stealing livestock t gilbert pearson a floridian who was many years that president of the florida of national audubon maintained in the early 20th centuries president maintain that he knew of the bald eagle that flew away with a sheep. that was twice its weight. and carried it for five miles. i don't know how i knew five miles. i don't know, but made me figure it out. it got exhausted. it was you ultimately too much for it and mothers were warned. don't leave your infant unto outdoors unattended unless you want to bald eagle to fly away with it mcguffey reader or mcgovern's reader which is which next to the bible was the most popular book in the 19th century. it was a primer for immigrants learning to reading english and and children had a story for decades about a ball about an eagle flying away with a child to in taking it back to its nest and the image the drawing that went with the story is of a girl in the towns of an eagle and this girl has to be at least six or seven years old. and one of thomas edison's earliest films rescued from an eagle's nest. 1908 film thomas edison's edison studios, i say it wasn't a film that he produced himself but 1908 silent film was about a lumberjack and his wife who lived with their child in a cabin in woods and one day the husband skips off to cut down trees and mother leaves their child outside alone while she goes back in the cabin and a bald eagle on eagle was actually bald eagle on wires. i think i have an image here. area. oh so look at these guys, so this was taken in 1930s. and don't you know those children ended up in therapy at some point. i mean look at would you want to run into those guys anywhere i sure wouldn't and abort eagle unfortunately did. and what was interesting about the shooting of these eagles is that first of all, i did a search on newspaper dot newspapers.com from 1850 to 1920 with the words in quotation marks bald eagle shot and i came up with something like a hundred and forty thousand hits. and my research assistant and i we couldn't go through all 140,000, but we went through quite a few of them. there was very little repetition, you know newspaper reporting, you know, the same bald eagle incident and new the newspapers in those days did not these shootings whatsoever. and they treated them as if somebody had caught this large. bass down at the lake and in of course when they would report the weight of the bass, they always reported the wingspan. and the weight of the bird and how it was killed where there's clubbed when it was shot who shot it without any combination whatsoever. and so and it's all based on these myths that the bald eagle. was going was harming livestock. and that it was an unnecessary economic competition for livestock farmers and fishermen. the territory of alaska from 1917 to 1952 had a bounty on bald eagles that and ultimately it paid bounty on 128 more than 128,000 bald eagles during that period they were accused of stealing salmon and and and foxes. so competing with the fox fur industry in the salmon industry. they generally only pray on spawned out salmon, which are not marketable. and anyway, this is from the thomas edison film rescuing from an eagles nest and this eagle on prop wires flies in grabs his child, which i knew is over a year old because she had appeared in a film a year before and you can see she's on wires too those and those that's back in the days when there were no protection for child actors apparently and what is fascinating about this movie is who played the father who the star was in the movie? and do you know the name dw griffith? yes, dw griffith is the the who drew the person who directed the birth of a nation the film 1915 15 film that led to the rebirth of the kuukalak's klan and the critics pandem is an actor in this movie and he decided not to act anymore. he went into directing too bad, you know, maybe if they've been kinder to him he would have stayed as an actor and never made that film. but so by the 19 by the early 20th century. that actually by the late 19th by the late 1980s the ball and eagle has disappeared from a number of states across the country at the time of european contact. to estimated size of the bald eagle population in north america was probably around 500,000 or that was estimated size 500,000 throughout the lower 48. but finally 19th century, they they're no longer nesting and a dozen or more something like more like 20 states. and make rare appearances and places where they had been very common particularly on the east coast. they became so scared by the late 19th century and the east coast that people thought they were rocky mountain birds. and and so a lot of people were began to worry about the loss of the bald eagle that it was going to go extinct like the passenger pigeon did in 1914 and the carolyn carolina parakeet in 1918. so people organized and to try to stop the destruction of the bald eagle and try to get federal protection to try to do away with alaska's eagle bounty bald eagle bounty which again was launched in 1917 and continued in 1952. and the one group that you would think that would come out in support of the bald eagle and legal protection for the bald eagle. national audubon did not and gilbert pearson who i mentioned earlier who was the president of national audubon from florida archer florida, which is eagle country and where he grew up in late 19th century. he would not oppose the the the alaska bounty or support federal legislation to just for the bald eagle until this woman. oops this woman came along this is rosalie edge who founded an organization in opposition of t gilbert pearson and audubon called the emergency conservation committee. and of course the emergency was that audubon is not stepping up. and and it was the most powerful conservation organization and is the best funded most influential and but it was very cozy with the gun companies and ammunition and gun companies mainly through t gilbert pearson. and rosalie edge and this this man well, we'll advance name who was a naturalist at the american museum of natural history. they found in the emergency conservation committee together and they barbecued audubon in the press. and they they also push for federal legislation and protective ball legal congress, finally. press that legislation in 1940 by then. pearson was convinced to change his position on the bald eagle and supported the legislation. and in 1940 a year before america went to war against fascist. tyranny congress passed the bald eagle protection act. as the first federal law that gave protection to an individual species all the other wildlife legislative federal wildlife legislation before then gave protection to multiple species, but not rafters by the way owls falcons hawks offspring in eagles, maryland and others and but the so the bald eagle was privileged with being the first individual species to have federal protection in the rationale was and this is in the language of the the congressional record. is that it congress realized that it was duplicitous that it would be dishonest that would be disgraceful to kill the living bird. that was the the of course the influence for this very powerful symbol of freedom. congress recognized that americans to denying the so-called bird of freedom its own freedom. but what happens five years later? in 1945 ddt is released on the general on the open market for commercial and home use. and ddt of course has the eagle population is has this protection but now with ddt coming out on the market. it's affected like every other bird ddt just devastated the bald eagle population osprey population as well, you know a lot of birds and the i'm not going to explain explanation why ddd did but that's all in the book and this man charles broly interesting guy retired banker for winnipeg retired to guess what state florida when you're six years old went to in the late 1930s went to moon to tampa started climbing trees. this is a banker. this is not assigned. this is not an ornithologist started climbing these 40 50 60 70 even 80 foot tall loblolly in longley pines to ban eaglets and he was the first person to do that systematically and he did this for 20 years until age 79 never fell out of out of a tree. and and estimate he climbed 1100 trees and banded over 1200 eaglets and what he did was invaluable because it his banded birds showed us that where eagles migrated. that they migrated and where they migrated and but he was the first person to make a link between the decline. he was eyewitness to the the precipitous decline of the bald eagle population, and he was the first person to make a connection between ddt and and that population suffering and in fact rachel carson writes about him in silent spring. and so in poly redford does too and herbert. she said that that she said the reason why he never fell out of a tree is because he was protected by an ornithological angel and so so charles broly? is it becomes aware ddt has to others and and of course the devastation that is causing to all sorts of wildlife including fish, which is the principal food source of bald eagles. and and the epa ban the sale of ddt in 1972. a move that was supported by president nixon and thus began the restoration period now the ddt's out of the environment 1972 is a pivotal year for another important environmental. um important environmental legislation. what is that? it's the 50th anniversary this year. clean water act endangered species act 1978 if if the bald eagles habitat, we're not cleaned up. it wouldn't despite all the protections it had from the bald eagle protection act and eventually the endangered species act. it wouldn't have it wouldn't have the population would not have been able to have a resurrection if you will because you know the bays and bayous and lakes the aquatic. plants seagrass have been devastated efficient disappeared seagrass disappeared fishing speared birds disappeared. but the 1972 clean water act help clean up these these bodies of water bring back the aquatic plant life that brought back to fish that brought back the birds including the bald eagle this woman right here doris mager another floridian who's an important character in the story and this isn't just about florida by the way, but florida has a really interesting history in in the bald eagles saga if you will doris manger, this is a picture for when she's 60 years old. and she had just finished biking across the country from san diego to florida it was bob graham local guy. of course bob grant giving her some sort of proclamation and and designating the the day that the the great seal the united states was adopted as doors mager day in in florida. she would she stops she was sponsored by kmart on her bike ride. she stopped at kmart came arts across the country to give lectures about the importance of rafters and and in kmart parking lots and in schools and convincing kids not to shoot raptors and explaining how important they were to to the environment to the ecosystem in doris mager was a had been a vice president for florida audubon. she started florida audubon's raptor rehabilitation program in her backyard in in the 60s, and she did some other things that i want to tell you about because i want to because i'm going to read to you. section about what she did to get the get things rolling and wrap the rehabilitation and in florida. i interviewed her when she was 93 94 years old. she was still going strong. she wore out something like three chevy vans driving around the country giving giving lecturers at schools. and this is you see this is either george, washington or general patton with her and who travel with her along with an owl who she called extra terrific et for extraterrific. and so i want to read you. just a three-minute just a few paragraphs one, but give me a sense sense of the flavor of the book. this is about doorsmager. and then just say a few more things and we'll move on to q&a. bulging out from between the upper branches of a loblolly pine a large finger lapped arrangement of sticks form the familiar aesthetic of an industrious eagle couple. for some unknown reason the pair had not returned for the 1979 nesting season. staring up doris mager was aware of the centrality of nests in the lives of bald eagles. those compositions have meticulous labor enigmas of an intricacy and strength that mary art with utility. are essential to the renewal of life? the identity a few birds is as closely attached to their nest as the bald eagles is to its airy. that's what you many people release. that's the european or british term for and a raptor's nest is an eerie. none in the north america build larger or stodder ones the bulbs are emblematic of their species resilience nests had been a key variable in determining the populations decline and they would be imperative to its revival. without the mag or new there would be no birds. margaret was also aware of the violence spontaneous weather that frequented, central, florida. and at that moment dark clouds filled the sky to the west. standing at the food of the loblolly one hand hesitantly on a climbing ladder hanging down from the height of a fire lookout tower. she was intent. on spending time in the nativity of the former occupants mager had never scaled a tree before much less than a storm. she reached over and touched an ominous looking lightning scar running down. the tree's trunk to the ground. pushing ahead of the storm the wind pulsed and the green needles trembled in the branches high above. one eyewitness described the tree spindly. another called it wind whipped. jeff klinkenberg the outdoor editor for the saint petersburg times who grew up in miami is the one who used the word spindly. here she was he reflected decades later 53 years old and climbing a ladder. i would not have dare to climb at my age then 30. before putting yourself at the mercy of the swelling wind mag, or tied a red bandana around her head of silver hair. which he had had cut and styled in a new hairdo for the occasion. our earrings dangle beside her cheeks and retaining the correct raptor theme a spread eagle necklace wreath her neck. she wore black jeans a denim shirt and gray running shoes yet. her jogging routine had been inconsistent of late. and relating that detail she confessed to clinkenberg. i've got fat little legs, and i probably shouldn't be that far off the ground at my age. she slipped into a safety harness secure to an upper branch alongside the harness line the grounding cable a lightning rod chased down the side of the tree. a number of precautions were taken that day in mager added one of her own by swallowing emotion sickness pill. i get air sick and i get c6 she again confessed to clinkenberg, and i'm probably going to get nest thick. mager put one foot up on a lower rung and followed that with the other on the next. grabbing a third at eye level with both hands. she stared nervously into the trees rust-colored scaly bark and coaxed herself up toward a 50 foot summit. whenever the wind kicked up the tree creek like an old door when it swung like one. she would pause grip the ladder tighter and take a deep breath. she shouted to a friend below. get down on your knees, viola and pray. so manager was climbing at retreat to spend six days in that eagles nest in 1979 what she did and to raise awareness about the of the the plight of the bald eagle, but also to raise money for florida audubon's new raptor center and she got nash up paul harvey talked about her. and she was she got national press for what she did and quite a remarkable woman, but she was one of many people who were part of the bald eagle river restoration efforts in which we're all in the 1970s and eighties and nineties in 19 in on the in 1976 in the bison bicentennial year of the country us fish and wildlife launched a restoration program at the montezuma wildlife refuge in upstate upstate, new york. not far from syracuse and what what they were doing or relocating eaglets five six weeks old from canada and michigan and other states that still had a fairly healthy bald eagle population raising them in these big giant cages called hack outdoors called hack foxes and when they reached on towers on stilt and so they imprint on the territory. and we're bald eagles imprint becomes their natal territory and they that's where they nest when they reach breeding age. they'll return to that territory in nest and new york had no nas nesting bald eagles and so at 12 weeks they are released from those cages and eventually the hope was that they would return when they're four or five years old with the partner and build their own nest and they started doing that and so fish and wildlife launched along with state wildlife agencies launched these hacking programs. is that there? they were called all across the country and they were significant in the restoration of the bald eagle population. florida's bald eagles are responsible. i'm not going to go into great detail because we're running at a time here, but florida's bald eagles florida's bald eagle population was still fairly healthy, but it was but there were only in 1970 only 88 active nest involved in in florida. whereas the time in charles broly first was climbing trees in the late 30s. there are probably 1500 to 2000. active nest but they but the other southern states had no nesting eagles or many of the others and ultimately florida's bald eagles were responsible for repopulating those other southern states. so now if you see a nesting bald eagle in alabama or mississippi or south carolina or georgia, there's a good chance that that bald eagles the descendant of a florida eagle and i want the state of florida to put a monument out up on 441 and at the entrance of payne's prairie state preserve where where most of these eggs are taking from that area to to honor these heroic bald eagles, and i've already got apparently chris brown's the speaker of the house as inserted an item in this forthcoming budget to fund some sort of monument and i hope it stays in the budget fingers crossed. and but ultimately it but not only. was it this a human driven restoration program is very much dependent upon the bald eagles themselves bald eagles are fantastic. they talk about family values. nobody's got better family values tonight they make for life. they maintain a fatality to their nests for life as long as that nest continues to exist. they'll come back year after year after year after year build on to it. they're constantly renovating and enlarging and they get very big and they they raise their young with such care that when they leave their nest. the juveniles are often way a half a pound or a pound more than the parents. and so they're really extraordinary. and their domestic instincts are quite extraordinary and so the bald eagle is ready to come off the endangered species list. was put on immediately when the act was passed in 1973 and it was ready to come off the ball the dangerous species list in 1999. bureaucratic inertia at fish and wildlife delayed delisting until 2007 when the nationwide nesting population was between 10 and 11,000. and the bald eagles thrive since then. in tooth in the 2000 in 2010s and the decades of 2010s the population quadrupled. and today the bald eagle population in the lower 48 is estimated to be around 325,000. around 70,000 in alaska and probably around 70,000 in canada. so the bald eagle population is now close to if not already there 500,000 equivalent to that estimated size at the time of you know europeans began settling in north america. so that's a great american success story of the bald eagle, which is not to say there aren't don't continue to be dangerous for the bald eagle as a population expands. they're going to be or there have been increasing confrontations or conflicts with the human population which continues expand as well as much as we love the bald eagle. we still endanger it car strikes air strikes but most more than anything led poisoning from from hunting because because they're scavengers and hunters who are really dedicated conservation is from the most part think they're doing the right thing by gutting their in the woods. leaving you with the leaving for the wildlife. that's gavin. but unfortunately those their gut piles are are contaminated with lead from their bullets and their shot and just tiny. rice grain size sliver of lead can kill a bald eagle so but we're working on that. so so i'll stop there and entertain any questions you might have. even complaints yes. probably so how they working on. so there there is there's a push to well right now a lot of conservation groups are trying to encourage hunters to voluntarily shift from using lead to using copper for you know for deer and elk and for larger gain and years ago. the lead was outlawed in. hunting waterfowl and because it was ruining the the the aquatic environment and contaminating it and the and the federal government actually the obama administration. outlawed led and lead bullets and shot in national wildlife reserves but then his successors administration came in and and removed that band and said well hunters can't afford copper bullets. they should be able to use lead. and but i think well and the biden administration has not gone back to that band has not restored that ban, but i think eventually that'll happen. there's more and more publicity about what's happening and you know again hunters try to be really for the most part try to be really responsible and when it comes to conservation and wildlife and i think they'll voluntarily shift over. i mean you can but some of you in this room remember when we did away with letting gasoline, there's a lot of opposition it was delayed and eventually we did and everybody managed management when we did we the amount of lead in the environment drop by over 70% and any other questions, yes, how many states are they founded? there in all and they're all 50 states all 49 states. i should say in 49 states in north america. and no not not hawaii. no, they live only in north america. and at least in the wild, i mean there may be somebody in a cage in in hawaii, but they they they're not thriving as much in the the southwest and scientists are not sure why. and part of that may have to do with it. you know, it's an arid region, but they only land animals too and also birds they feed as i say in the book all three tables land aaron water. and but so minnesota has 10, nesting bald eagles and the largest population in the lower 48. we have 1,500 or more now. we're the second largest nesting population in the us but ohio is really kicking numbers up there and they have they were down to zero and they now have 700 nesting bald eagle pairs and and so they're they're making this really extraordinary comeback. that's really nice to see. yes. yeah, mexico also has the yes, they'll go down to northern mexico. yeah seal. yeah. oh, that's that's a golden. that's a golden eagle. yeah. yeah thought about it. yeah. yeah the supper right? that's that's exactly right the and i write about that and we're mentioned in in the book the the ball bald eagles will nest and in northern new mexico northern mexico and and throughout canada. and of course the united states and it's interesting. they're migration the way to migrate. it's very random. you know, there's many migrating birds. there's a pattern to what they do. there isn't to the bald eagles southern bald eagles between breeding season. well, let me give example florida bald eagles will some of them will go migrate as far as canada. so it will only go as far as georgia. some of them won't even leave the state. and the colorado bald eagles will fly up to canada between breeding season in canadian bald eagles and fly down to colorado. it's it's really fascinating alaskan bald eagles of migrate to the lucian islands, but some of them come down to washington and oregon and some wackos go to new mexico for some reason nobody knows why and there's there's a migration map in in the book and you you'll see how odd their migration patterns are, but they are definitely migrating birds. any other questions? yes, young eagles leave one year after birth. three mom and dad. no, they'll leave they'll leave at between 16 and 20 weeks. they'll leave at the end of the nesting season. what happens is so they'll flag around 12 weeks and because mom and dad, you know keep the refrigerator stocked for them. they they stick around for another three four weeks before they take off and and mom and dad in the meantime are become branchers. they they leave the nest but they they hang out and in trees nearby the nest and they fish they bring the fish back to the nest leave it for it's like us stock in the refrigerator for our teenage kids right and and they'll leave food for them. and but but leave them alone in in the nest and they actually they'll start doing that right about now about with your eagles around eight weeks because they want to give them room. they use the nest as one orthologist from the 19th 1920 said one of my heroes in the book. they use their nest as gymnasium they bounce and they you know, they exercise their wings and their legs and they need the room and so the parents get out of the way and nobody they're not threatened. they're too big and they don't and we're the we're really they're only once they reach, you know, mid juvenile size. we're the only predator and where there are only danger of their natural predator. they're doing that now. i'm doing that now. yeah, it's a really wonderful to watch bouncing up and down and osprey osprey juveniles. do the same thing. and but any yes, how many did they have h seasons? i the average is too typically two eggs. sometimes there is one sometimes three. and so yes, is there a number of how many are banded or trapped? there may i imagine you're most speed but i don't i don't know what that don't know know what that number is. yeah, anything generally nest away from people. okay. so here's the interesting thing is where poly redford comes into store. i love her book. i quote her a few times. she's such a beautiful writer and polly redford argued in 1963. she was comparing the raccoon with the bald eagle raccoon lives everywhere, right it thrives on the human population, you know on concentrated human populations as we're learning coyote does too and she said that the bald eagle won't do this and leave that too. but since there it's rest the the population of restoration after ddt scientists are learning. well, not just sinus we all that they'll hang around us. they will accept us in their their presence and you know, they they nest on golf courses, they nest the neighborhoods the national on school campuses. and so yeah, they they hang around near us. they love our landfills by the way, if you ever want to see a bald eagle go to the local landfill. i did a photo shoot with sarasota magazine if a few weeks ago and the the the the writer or the article wanted me to meet him at sarasota county's landfill because we're sure to get photographs of bald eagles and me and we did and a lot of people don't you know, they think that's awful that they're doing. this is beneath the dignity of you know, this national symbol to be scavenging at the, you know mere common burn scavenging at the landfill. we haven't land filled down south and they're regularly. yeah. yeah, i mean why not? i mean it's it's scavengers are smart birds scientists have learned that the people used to think scientists ornithologists used to think that that was unsmart behavior that that is a exhibition of a lack of intelligence and they also said that about stealing too bald eagles are notorious for stealing from from offspring which are actually better fishers. they have a higher success rate of catching fish and bald eagles steal from them all the time. they also steal from other bald eagles all the time juveniles are the biggest these because they're not as good at fishing yet. they have to learn that trade if you will. and so they steal all the time and but and they were condemned for that as being cowardly and but scientists have learned that that's actually stealing in all kind all sorts of wildlife steals from other wildlife steals food and they recognize that as smart behavior. you know bless, you know, it's a it's a you spend less energy sometimes but i've seen aerial battles that are just between bald eagles and the fish the swapping of fish going swish going back and forth four or five times between two bald eagles and aerial fight. you know the one being able to drop in the other one was scoop up in the mid air. do they live year round in their nest or no? they don't leave there. they'll vacate their nest, but they always come back to that same nest and if the if one partner loses another part in they go off. so here's how it works the juveniles when the juveniles leave then the parents leave and mom and dad go their own separate way. between breeding season but then they will they'll return to that nest the next breeding season and if a mate loses if a bald eagle loses its main it'll immediately go out and find another another mate. wow. yeah, and by the way bald eagle cams. nesting camps are the most popular wildlife cams in the world. and the most watch and they're really remarkable. you mentioned the eye on if you put on the bald eagle cam that we have here in south florida every now and then on for people will perched the adult evil perch some perch where you almost you see the head and yeah, the nest is now the background and it's like wow. yeah. he said the eye. yes, you see that and you very striking. yeah. yeah, and it's very powerful too. they can they can they can see wildlife clearly from a mile to two miles away and there's no such thing they and because they have a much higher number of photo receptor cells and we do in our eye they can and animals not able to camouflage itself from bald eagles site. it can see a light rabbit in in the white snow. you know from more than a mile out very very clearly. that's right. it's it's an appropriate expression. yeah, that's gonna play so they they can fly. on a level playing at 35 miles an hour approximately and if they of course they get a tailwind, you know, they're they can go a little bit faster, but when they dive they can hit 100 miles an hour. and and they they have the they have a mating a really spectacular mating ritual which they do that. well whitman wrote a poem in 1880s that's in. one of his collections from 18. i can't remember what year but in 1880s called the dollyance of the eagles or just dolly and so the eagles and he writes about their their aerial nuptial and they they latch. their talons they spin in the air the summer salt one will dive down and full speed toward the ground and fly up at the last minute. and it's it's really spectacular. you had a question. yeah. committed the season so it varies from around the country. but in florida is generally they come back together around november. they will spend a couple of weeks refurbishing their nest. for the female two or three weeks before the female lays her eggs, and it usually runs to late spring. they'll they're gone. they're typically gone by. a june mayor, june up north they it runs a little bit later. and i have a second home in new hampshire and i'll see. juveniles in early summer there my favorite bird probably your favorite bird. i guess i would have to say yeah, i mean i i spent you know five years with these guys every day riding about that learning about them and i just really came to it to admire them and in my in my books, i like to treat the environment as a i do treat environment as an active agent history, you know, i really believe that. we it plays a role in shaping the course of human history and and birds are part of nature and they do that. they're pretty they're pretty interesting birds. now if i would write another bird book, maybe that one would turn it. but yeah. you were missing a lot about ospreys. like they're very similar as far like what ostries right? yeah. yeah, and the very similar in size osprey or lighter. and they their wingspan is approximately same but their bodies a bit smaller. they as i said, they have a higher success rate as fishers about it's about 70% success rate compared with the bald eagles, which is around 30 35 percent. you see a lot of there's there. yes. yes, i grew up in that air on tampa bay and they their nests are very similar. and to bald eagles nest and it wouldn't it's not unusual for an osprey to take occupancy of an abandoned bald eagles nest. and vice versa anything else? yes the area here. is there any mess that we see? yes as joe said there's a there's an essence area. i don't can you see it in person? it's it's on a nest cam but it's yeah, if you go to zoom miami, they have an eagle cam page you can see that exactly yes. thank you. we have a number we have a lot of nests in rancho county in the gamesville area that you can you can see. in-person quite easily. there's one where somebody asks the question about where they live near us. there's one right next next to a four-lane highway. there's one right next to a four-lane highway. in gainesville somebody asked about whether or not they would live with humans and or nearby in our in proximity of civilization and right. you're absolutely right you you know, was visiting three lakes. just up the road here not too long ago doing a was cbs saturday morning. it's going to going to do a feature this saturday morning as a matter of fact. the when i was driving down there i saw them right there with the you know, the turkey vultures and the black vultures working on some roadkill and usually the vultures get out of their way. yeah, so which is unfortunate there's another potential collision between you know, expanding human population american population and in bald eagle population. is you know and they do they they do get hit by cars. yes. there's a really good movie called the eagle huntress that came out in. 2006 it's about us. it yes. yes. those are golden. yeah. yeah, beautiful movie. yeah, yes. i saw that it is it is good the film some of the film shots of the birds and flat are just extraordinary. yet knowing their flight how they were coming in. it was amazing. yeah with their talons, and yes, yes quite extraordinary. yeah. it's really a sight to watch some fish. and it's one of my favorite things to watch. so i'm happy to sign books if you got them. i'll sign him. thank you. searching chuck klosterman or the 90s? hi everyone. my name is sydney yeager, and i'm the public programs coordinator at the museum of jewish heritage a living memorial to the holocaust now in its 24th year. the museum is committed to the crucial mission of educating our diverse community about jewish life and heritage before during and after the holocaust as part of that mission, our programs are meant to illuminate the stories of survivors broader histories of hate and anti-semitism through time and stories of resistance against injustice. today we will be discussing the book the boy who drew auschwitz a powerful true story of hope and survival. the boy who drew auschwitz tells the story of thomas eve a 92 year old holocaust survivor