A pair of Bald Eagles rest on partly frozen Klammath Lake while hunting for their favorite food — fish.
Students migrate to eagles’ winter refuge
The sun hadn't risen when Survival Center Direc
tor Steve Kramer woke everyone Sunday with his
booming “good morning ” At 5:30 a m . no one
responded kindly to his remark Only groans chor
used back.
But the group had to get up It had traveled 200
miles Saturday to Oregon's Klamath Basin for an
“eagle watch’ sponsored by the Survival Center.
Only early birds see the eagles as they fly out from
their winter roosts to feed
Heeding Kramer's order to rise, 26 bodies moved
sluggishly toward the bus The first passenger on the
bus, James Sayre, peered through wire-rimmed
glasses at the other bleary-eyed passengers as they
stumbled aboard With an amused look, he said
“They probably get a real laugh out of it.”
He meant the eagles, of course And humans
standing beneath a dripping Oregon sky with bin
oculars and cameras stuck to their faces probably do
look funny from an eagle's perspective
The bus carried the bird watchers to the mouth of
Bear Valley, where they observed 53 eagles, stately
birds that weigh an average 11 pounds and boast a
six-foot wing span
Poor weather made for poor birdwatching condi
tions. The whitish clouds made it hard for people to
see the high-flying eagles’ trademark — a snow white
head and tail
Nonetheless, many group members who had
never seen the nation’s symbol before — except on
the backs of quarters and dollar bills — greeted the
sight with cries of excitement and awe
That’s why the Survival Center sponsored the
eagle watch, to expose people to a natural beauty
and phenomenon, said Matt Holmes, assistant dir
ector Every winter, from December to February, as
many as 500 eagles soar from side canyons like Bear
Valley to hunt for breakfast
"It would have been a real nice surprise to have
seen 30 of them,” said carpenter Allan Porter ap
preciatively."I wasn’t disappointed with what I saw,
but then again I stayed in the bus "
Klamath Basin has the largest wintering bald eagle
population in the lower 48 states, said Ralph Opp,
Klamath Wildlife Refuge worker.
The basin, located near the California border,
attracts eagles for two reasons—the marshy land
scape and the other wildlife that make the basin their
home-away-from-home. Because 85 percent of
western migrating water fowl stop here, the eagles
follow their food source
Observing eagles from the bus was easier than on
foot, and unlike the sight of humans, the bus didn't
scare them away.
The eagle watchers watched two nesting pairs
hunt rodents near Upper Klamath Lake, a favorite
hunting ground because of its shallow waters By
this time, the bus was heading back to Eugene and
most people, except the few with sharp eyes, had
only seen an eagle from far away The eagles flew
warily above the lake and eyed the bus suspiciously
Though not a predator, an eagle will eat weakened
or dead water fowl and rodents “In the winter time,
they take what they can get,” Opp explained
The basin's side canyons provide a nice roost for
the picky birds, Opp explained Eagles nest in
old-growth forests where the mature trees sport
snags for perching and a heavy protective foilage
Side canyons have much warmer temperatures that
make the area more desirable
Its east and northeast exposures shelters the birds
from storms The canyon's relative inaccessability
keeps curious humans away If Opp catches any
trespassers, he writes them tickets, but says "most
people are too lazy to walk that far ”
As a member of Oregon's Bald Eagle Management
Team. Opp watches eagles carefully Through his
observations, Opp knows how to identify eagle
habitat and mannerisms.
For example, eagles live up to 30 years and mate
for life Some observers speculate that eagles from
the different regions inter-mate, creating a gene
exchange
Oregon has 100 nesting pairs which live in the
state year-round The Columbia River and the Bend
area also are nesting grounds for eagles, Opp said
Still, Oregon's endangered species list classifies
the bird as "threatened." one notch worse than
"endangered Oregon and four other states list the
eagles as threatened Forty-three states list the eagle
as endangered
"He's in pretty good trouble,” Opp said "When
the Bald Eagle's in trouble, it's an indicator that
something is wrong " Man needs to pay attention to
such an indicator, he said "We share the same
habitat "
The state s eagle count keeps improving but the
logging industry's axe threatens the population
"They're gonna need more habitat to produce more
birds "
The bird's image has flown into the public eye
since Congress unanimously declared 1982 as
“Year of the Bald Eagle ” Two hundred years ago.
the bald eagle beat out the turkey to become Amer
ica's symbol Ironically, the Endangered Species Act
will come under Congress' scruntiny this year and
Opp suspects that the tight-fisted legislators may
"water it down ” That scares him
"You can t lose by jumping on the bandwagon for
the ’Year of the Bald Eagle,' " Opp said ruefully
Then again, "it's not economical to have good
wildlife habitat "
How much is an eagle worth? "The forest service
can tell me how much a tree is worth,” Opp contin
ued “I can have Boeing build me (an eagle) and then
tack a value on it
"They talk money and we can’t understand."
L
The Survival Center's ‘Eagle Warriors. ’
Story by Caroline Petrich
Photos by Bob Baker