EAGLE HEALTH GOOD, MOSTLY

Back in the 1970s, some stuff with bad initials got banned -- DDT and PCBs.
That was good.
The chemicals were doing a frighteningly good job of killing off eagles and some other wild fowl by thinning their egg shells.
Scientists, reporting in Peterborough, Ontario at a meeting of the International Association of Great Lakes Researchers, reconfirmed what is generally accepted as the good news from the chemical bans.
Eagle populations are back. Last year, the federal government removed the bald eagle from the lists of threatened and endangered species. Michigan alone now has nearly 500 nesting pairs. Minnesota and Wisconsin count some 2,400 additional pairs.
That's all very encouraging. But not perfect.
"Levels in PCBs and DDT in eagles have come way down," said William Bowerman, an eagle expert and ecology professor at Clemson University in an Ann Arbor News article.
But the lakes are not entirely free of the chemicals and some contamination hot spots continue to cause problems, the scientist said.
Eagles that live and feed on inland lakes and streams had eggs that were noticeably freer of contamination free than lake eagles. These inland eagles simply were eating cleaner fish, Bowerman said.
Herring gulls, another species studied, are perhaps one of the best indicators of chemical problems since they live year round on the lakes.
The cleanest herring gulls eggs were found on islands in Lake Superior and norther Lake Huron, reported Chip Weseloh, a bird contamination expert with the Canadian Wildlife Service.
The dirtiest eggs came from such long-suffering hot spots as islands in Saginaw Bay, the Detroit River and western Lake Erie, Weseloh said.