Oh, how the mighty have fallen

It was a very cold winter day for the 25th of February 2023. While we thought the weather would improve, Mother Nature thought she’d mess with us. And indeed she did. It was that morning I got a text that seemed urgent from a friend. "MJ? You there? Apparently MK hasn’t moved from a pine nearer to the chapel. Her eyes are closed.” That did seem odd, as I ended up stopping by the cemetery to check her out.

This gal was a staple at my town’s cemetery and the local watershed for years. She was deemed “Ruler of the Lakes” and a “Matriarch”. Coming onto the scene in 2018, this young gal decided to make the Mystic Lakes her home. She was in her 2rd year and we loved observing her hanging out with an adult Eagle for most of the fall and bantering with other immatures.

Her name became known to many. Leg bands are an easy way to identify by the initials etched in the color metal bands. Banded while she was still a chick in the nest, her tags were inadvertently switched as the colored band (with the letters MK) is typically on the left leg. As she continued to hang in the area, we nicknamed her MK. It stuck.

MK continued to thrive and attract a few suitors. It wasn’t until 2019 when a slightly older male, whose bands adorned the letters KZ came onto the scene. We learned he was born in Webster, Mass, and MK was born in Waltham, Mass. MK was still considered a subadult because she was still in her third year and would be considered entering mating age (4th year) in early 2020.

MK and KZ quickly became mates and worked on preparations for making a family. It was believed and can’t recall if she had a previous suitor to the chick that was killed by an intruder. It wasn’t meant to be and MK stayed in the area determined to try again.

In 2021 MK and KZ welcomed 2 chicks. They grew quickly, were banded and thrived. So we thought. The nest was near housing complexes and businesses, rodents were picked up when fish wasn’t available. With rats came rodenticide. While we don’t know where the poisoned rats were picked up, we did note the alarming abundance of bait boxes nearby. Eagles are opportunists and when they don’t have to travel far to find food, if they see road kill or a sick animal, it’s considered fair game. One of the juveniles became gravely ill with rodenticide while its sibling also ingested a certain portion of the meal. All efforts were made to get the juvenile help but it was too late. The other sibling managed to recover and was able to fly south as many young eagles do. As fate would have it, the wandering sibling was killed by a car and died in Delaware.

2022 traveled the same path but thankfully escaped the overdose of rodenticide. MK and KZ had 2 amazing offspring. One fledged and was off and running to the great beyond. Unfortunately, the other wasn’t so lucky and suffered an injury to the leg and became a patient at a local facility. Sadly, it was determined the injury was too severe and was euthanized.

But on that cold February morning, MK’s stance seemed unusual when I got there. With the really cold snap and the mating season started, a few folks who knew her started a closer observation on her condition. Things quickly spiraled downward and the wheels were set in motion to get her help. But the rodenticide had already done its damage. Despite all the efforts made to save her by the amazing veterinary staff, she suffered a massive fatal bleed. When the body is so loaded with Secondary Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (known as SGARs), the chances of surviving are extremely low.

It was really hard to see this mighty creature in trouble and even harder to know she has left us forever. The community I live was shocked to hear the news and MK’s death has made the news across the nation.

Eagles are apex predators which means they sit at the top of the food chain. When we found out poison had sickened the eaglets, it became a reality that even eagles had to fight to survive an unseen predator. Their numbers rebounded after the DDT wiped them out and a federal program to bring them back was initiated.

We are now seeing all the major SGAR compounds in laboratory samples of one individual. It’s also observed that every single wildlife has some amount of SGARs in their system, and at this alarming rate, it will become abundantly clear that these poisons have leached into the water systems and poisoning aquatic life and water sources. Research has already shown its affect being identified as being either persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic substances or very persistent and very toxic substances.

The unfortunately thing with SGARs, the irreversible affect is not a matter of ‘if’, it’s a matter of ‘when’. People need to wake up and realize that this is a very serious and detrimental danger to every living thing.

Read more on the science:

Wastewater-borne exposure of limnic fish to anticoagulant rodenticides

First evidence of anticoagulant rodenticides in fish and suspended particulate matter: spatial and temporal distribution in German freshwater aquatic systems

Anticoagulant rodenticides (EHC 175, 1995), Word Health Organization

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The fragility of nesting birds and the advent of anti-coagulant rodenticide