Maine has too many bald eagles

Recently Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife issued the following news about bald eagles:

Bald eagles were not always as common in Maine as they are today. In 1962, only 27 nesting pairs were found across the state. After decades of monitoring and implementation of intensive management practices, including working with willing landowners to conserve eagle nesting sites, Maine’s bald eagle population recovered to approximately 503 nesting pairs by 2009. Currently, the population is a robust 734 nesting pairs!

This is not good news in my mind. Eagles are wicked killers. Around my house they have killed everything from baby loons to ducks. I also think they killed my osprey, because suddenly one day it was no longer hanging out in a tree alongside the stream outside my home office window.

One year I wrote a column proposing an eagle hunting season. And I wrote that I thought the eagle sandwich would be delicious.

Of course, I was kidding, but I guess a lot of people didn’t know that, because I got crucified in lots of nasty messages. I was going to write a follow up column reporting that I had tried the eagle sandwich and it wasn’t very good, but I decided I’d better not do that!

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.