Joe, I've seen the Eagles in South America feeding on the doves I've shot too. They seemed perfectly healthy to me, but I went home and they stayed and presumably ate somebody else's doves the next week and on and on till they died, maybe of lead poisoning.

I'm as confused as anybody by 'cooked up science' whether about lead poisoning or global warming. But I do believe that it is established 'good science' that lead poisoning was killing waterfowl, so I have put up with steel shot and expensive substitutes in my old doubles. I don't find it any great leap of faith to believe that other bird including Eagles, upland game birds and songbirds are similarly affected by lead poisoning.

In my mind it remains to be shown whether low level lead deposits from upland hunting are actually being ingested by wildlife in sufficient amounts to be of harm, but if so, I would feel the same way about having to use lead substitutes in upland hunting as I do about waterfowl; I'd regret having to give it up,but I would do it for the good of the environment...Geo