Bald eagles thrive in Southern Nevada
The bald eagle—that quintessential symbol of the United States of America—is alive and well these days in Southern Nevada.
That’s the report from researchers for the Public Lands Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. This year’s annual midwinter survey documented 87 bald eagles at lakes Mead and Mohave, the highest on record and eight more than the previous record in 2002, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, whose able reporter Keith Rogers tracks the soaring icons in print.
According to Wikipedia, the species was on the brink of extinction in the United States in the late 20th century, but now has a stable population and is in the process of being removed from the federal government list of endangered species.
The “bald” eagle isn’t really bald. As Wikipedia notes, “Bald in the eagle’s English-language name is derived from the word piebald, and refers to the white head and tail feathers and their contrast with the darker body.
Use of the Bald Eagle, grasping arrows and an olive branch with its talons, dates to 1782 when the Continental Congress adopted the current design for the Great Seal of the United States.
In 1784 after the Revolutionary War had ended, Benjamin Franklin dissented, suggesting the Wild Turkey as being more appropriate.
“I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country,” he wrote in a letter from Paris to his daughter. “He is a Bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly.”
Judging from the shenanigans perpetrated constantly by the rascals in our nation’s capital, the eagle probably was an appropriate choice.
