On Friday, Rex Springston had a fascinating T-D piece where he laid out the numbers on the bald eagle recovery in Virginia. For the first time since accurate records began being kept in the 1930s, the number of nesting eagle pairs in the state topped 200. Springston quotes eagle expert Bryan Watts with the Center for Conservation Biology: “My guess would be this is the best the population has been in 300 years.”

According to Watts, there are now 205 eagle pairs on the James — up from 56 in 2000. In 1977, as a result of DDT use, the entire state of Virginia had just 33 nesting pairs and the James River had none. It’s an amazing turnaround story, one that appears to be continuing.

Click here to read the whole piece. It also features some great eagle photography.