Sometimes, after I take the kids to school on my day off, I will drive down to the spit to walk the beach and watch the sunrise over the mountains and check out the eagles! 24 years ago I came to Homer on a friends recommendation to camp on the spit and have a little summer adventure. The first day I was completely entranced by one eagle resting on a signpost. I couldn't believe he was so close or that no one else was paying much attention. The next morning when I climbed out of my tent (which was pitched right where this bird is now!) to find I was surrounded by over a hundred bald eagles, I realized why no one looked twice at just one!
Jeanne Keene, also known as the 'Eagle Lady' passed away a few weeks ago...she had been feeding the eagles from her trailer at the end of the Homer spit since the '70's. The huge number of bald eagles that hang out on the beach here in the spring is due in a large part to Jeanne and her cannery scraps. It has made for alot of controversy between the 'bird' people who think this is not ok and the many professional wildlife photographers that come this time of year to capture images of these beautiful birds up close with snow covered peaks in the background. Now that Jeanne is gone they are allowing the feeding to continue until the end of March of this year and that's it. The birds (hard to call them birds...they are the size of a small child!) relocate to salmon streams across the bay come summer, but I wonder what will happen to them next winter?
No comments:
Post a Comment