Buzzing the Eagle’s Nest

[ac0j]

Maybe in Nebraska people are actually punished for driving under the influence. In my neck of the woods, and every other place I know of, people convicted of DUI usually just get a fine that goes into the local coffers and a lawyer make some money for doing next to nothing. They toss their car keys back to them and let them drive off into the sunset to kill eventually. Everybody win$!!

Not quite that simple here. ANY drunk driving gets you suspended for at least 3 months, then special insurance has to be purchased and maintained for a couple years. Second offense requires the even MORE expensive insurance and an interlock on your vehicle at a huge cost for a year or so. If there is a death involved, there will certainly be jail time. You should move to the USA where there are laws that protect you from drunks.

 

[DroningOn]

You should move to the USA where there are laws that protect you from drunks.

10,000 people a year DIE in impairment related accidents. I don’t think the laws are working.

 

[ac0j]

10,000 people a year DIE in impairment related accidents. I don’t think the laws are working.

I think if there werent the laws we have, it would be 100,000 people a year dead. So one could argue the laws work a bit.
Its just like and Drone laws, or rules. There is always some idiot that thinks they are above the law.

 

[DroningOn]

I think if there werent the laws we have, it would be 100,000 people a year dead.

Thank you, I feel so much better now.

 

[halifax]

Bald eagle is a listed protected species in Connecticut.

Well, the article is a little overzealous in its interpretation of the law.

Technically, the US law says you're not allowed to "disturb" an eagle without a permit (Canadians do whatever they want to them. It's not their national bird and they're no longer endangered, even in the US).

Under the law, the key definition is disturb: "Disturb means to agitate or bother a bald or golden eagle to a degree that causes, or is likely to cause, based on the best scientific information available, (1) injury to an eagle, (2) a decrease in its productivity, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior, or (3) nest abandonment, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior."

Flying a drone near an eagle, based on the best scientific information, should not, under this definition, disturb an eagle, even on a nest. Fish and Wildlife would have to demonstrate that you decreased the eagle's productivity or caused it to abandon a nest. The USFWS can often go overboard in interpreting this to mean even looking funny at a bald eagle is a violation of the law and it is often questionable if it would hold up in court.

That said, I wouldn't want to fight the federal agency when it gets its knickers in a bunch and even if you're ultimately found innocent of the charges, you're going to spend a whole lot of time and money in court just to defend yourself. In this case though, it appears the agency probably did the right thing: "The agent “opted to provide basic education,” the spokesman said."

As a practicing ecologist who has worked with birds of prey, I can categorically say that they are VERY sensitive to disturbance and YES, a drone can fairly easily cause problems, depending on the situation. Their reaction can vary from abandoning the nest site, failure to lay eggs, leaving eggs during incubation resulting in failure to hatch, and reluctance to feed growing chicks to scaring young birds into leaving the nest before they are fledged which means fatalities. I know of a case in the northeast where rock climbers passing near a peregrine nest on a new route caused the mother to never return to the site. Literally, never.

Beyond federal migratory bird laws, eagles are still a listed protected species in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York. Just because we are starting to see them more frequently does not mean that they have recovered. You need both fairly large populations and multiple populations to persist as a species, otherwise inbreeding and other small-population dynamics make them susceptible to extirpation. Same goes for wolves, mountain lions, and other "charismatic megafauna" that are always being rushed to de-listing out in the Western US, where science is routinely ignored to the benefit of ranchers and farmers paying almost nothing for their use of federal lands.