When some friends planned to visit Alaska last year, one of their bucket-list items was to see and photograph bald eagles. We Alaskans enjoy the presence of half of North America’s estimated 70,000 bald eagles (they exist solely in North America), and thus have the opportunity to see them make their living in much less majestic ways than most would imagine. Not so much for old Ben, who seemed to have more than a passing knowledge of the bird’s character and didn’t confuse simple good looks with imagined qualities. The aesthetic rapture of seeing the big bird riding the thermals above mountain peaks was evidence enough for the committee, which it would seem knew next to nothing about the bird. They based the selection on the bald eagle’s notional representation of the qualities of longevity, strength and freedom, and its stunning good looks.īald eagles are formidably equipped to dismantle a winter kill moose. On June 20, 1782, a committee (there’s always a “committee”) proclaimed the big bird as the national symbol. No less than John James Audubon concurred with Franklin’s opinion of the bald eagle. He went on to opine that the turkey, a much more respectable bird of courage, would have been a better choice. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest of America.” Besides he is a rank coward the little Kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district.
“I wish that the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative to our country, he is a bird of bad moral character, he does not get his living honestly, you may have seen him perched on a dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing-hawk, and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to its nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes it from him. When they do, it is while making a deposit at the local landfill.īenjamin Franklin had this to say about the bald eagle as the national symbol: My thoughts rarely include Benjamin Franklin. His antics of flying a kite in a lightning storm to prove out some of the unanswered questions of electricity was at one time, and maybe still is, a staple of elementary-school science classes. He was a revered statesman who helped draft the Declaration of Independence. (Photo by Steve Meyer)īenjamin Franklin is perhaps best remembered for his role as a founding father of America.
Approximately 160 bald eagles, a small percentage of the total at the Soldotna dump, look for food in January 2019.
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