Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/04/bald-eagles-are-taking-trash-f.html
…
12 Likes
34 Likes
Filthy creatures. . .
1 Like
Somehow I doubt that’s supposed to be going into landfill.
Now I don’t feel so bad about the steak bones the crows occasionally leave in our birdbath.
36 Likes
Had to go look it up. Nope the eagles I see are not going to roam that far and probably get plenty of food from the fish and small game in and around Lake Washington.
I am still sad the crows who I toss kitty kibble to regularly have yet to leave me anything shiny.
20 Likes
When I read that story the other day, I laughed out loud at multiple points. The idea that the “majestic symbol of our country” is actually a nuisance trash-monster that spreads awful, biohazardous garbage across the landscape tickles me. (It’s like some sort of metaphor…)
31 Likes
Well played!
15 Likes
Leave out some better food for them instead?
Stock a pond nearby for them to fish in?
11 Likes
As long as the garbage is easily accessible, they’ll go for that (and probably first). Add more food and the population will expand to make use of available resources, and so as long as the garbage is available…
(It’s a good argument for better trash-handling practices, but too late for that.)
8 Likes
A properly run landfill is the correct way to deal with garage that isn’t going to be recycled. It keeps the plastic out of the waterways (unlike recycling it by sending it to China who stacks it next to rivers and waits for the next flood…) and it concentrates the currently less useful resources into an area that can be reclaimed later when we don’t have as much resources. (Our waste glass, metals, and plastics - seeding tomorrow’s mines today!) It doesn’t dump CO2 into the air like incinerating waste does, and don’t even think about dumping that trash at sea…
But if the eagles have enough time to pick through the garbage, this probably ain’t a properly run landfill… if it is, there should be some bird abatement techniques that they can do. (Although there is probably going to be some problems with that, since Eagles are still endangered… you can’t do anything to hurt them, which limits options, but I can’t believe they can’t put up some nets and sparkle lazers and stuff like that…)
13 Likes
Turnabout is fair play.
16 Likes
I was just watching these East Coast ospreys bringing trash to their nest:
(Please note I cannot vouch for the trash-ness or not of the Capital Gazette news, but I can kind of understand why a bird might mistake a sodden rolled-up newspaper for a large fish.)
2 Likes
Eagles would rather take fish from an osprey than hunt their own. I’ve seen it many, many times on mountain lakes.
- osprey catches fish
- osprey flies low, struggling with weight of nice trout, heading for home tree
- bald eagle flies out from tree line
- bald eagle chases osprey around lake
(pause for yakkity-sax) - osprey drops fish back in lake, flips off eagle
- fish swims off, mortally wounded but still ambulatory
- eagle goes back to tree, high-fives bros
9 Likes
2 Likes
“Stupid humans!! Stop this insane shit and clean up your own mess!!”
5 Likes
something something parallels to late stage capitalism.
15 Likes
I guess they were the right choice for the national emblem
8 Likes
