From DC’s “Prince of Petworth” blog. When I was a kid in the northeast United States in the ’70s, we almost never saw eagles, hawks, or even vultures in the wild, because there was still so much DDT pesticide in the system (banned in 1972). I didn’t see a bald eagle outside of a zoo until 2014. Now I see one every few months, and they’re getting common along the Potomac River.