Our friend Lisa at Friends of Blackwater NWR has asked me to share news of her latest web log.  She has written an excellent piece on Raptors and Lead Poisoning – I encourage everyone here to read it and spread the word!

From Lisa - 

Raptors and Lead Poisoning

About a week ago, an event regarding a bald eagle came to my attention, and I’d like to talk about it here with the hope of producing some good out of an unfortunate situation.

One of our cam watchers was with his wife near Vienna, Maryland, which is not far from Blackwater Refuge on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He spotted an adult bald eagle in a tree, and at first he thought the eagle looked very old, since the eagle was listless but with no visible signs of injury. He wrote me when he got home and sent me the photo you see to the right. I forwarded the photo to a volunteer with Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, which is a wonderful bird rehabilitation outfit on the Eastern Shore. Before anyone could go out and look for the bird, a representative from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources brought a female adult bald eagle to Tri-State, and it had come from this same general area, so we suspect it was the same bird.

Lisa has also included the following:

What You Can Do

If you have a friend or family member who hunts or fishes, then pass along the two brochures provided below to these people. Show them what the consequences of lead poisoning can be and show them that they can make a difference by avoiding lead-based materials. Included in the brochures are tips for finding non-lead products at local retailers.

Fishing and Lead Poisoning (1.3 MB PDF) http://www.friendsofblackwater.org/wordpress/
eagle08/pdfs/WWLfishing.pdf

Hunting and Lead Poisoning (2 MB PDF)
http://www.friendsofblackwater.org/wordpress/
eagle08/pdfs/WWLhunting.pdf

Read the rest on her Web Cam Log here: