The Eagle Lady

I belong to a local birders' list that sends me information about interesting local birding opportunities, and sightings of rare or migratory birds are sent around to anyone on the list. I received a very interesting set of pictures in mid-February showing massive numbers of eagles. And I thought they were an endangered species! More about this in a minute.

After a quick search on google, I learned more about where the pictures came from, and about Jean Keane, the Eagle Lady. Jean has her own Wikipedia page (which is where I snagged her picture from) and learned that she died of a respiratory illness in January 2009 at the age of 85.

Jean was a rodeo trick rider in the 1950s, and after suffering a devastating accident while trick riding, she eventually (in the 1970s) ended up in a motor home at the Homer Spit campground in Homer, Alaska. She took a job at the fish processing facility on the Spit, and she eventually became a foreman at the plant. From Wikipedia:

Keene's career as the "Eagle Lady" began shortly after her arrival in Homer, when one morning she noticed two bald eagles on the beach near her motor home. Keene saw offering food to the eagles as a natural extension of her practice of keeping bird feeders filled with sunflower seeds for wild songbirds. She began to bring home surplus fish from her job in a bucket, and each morning would throw some fish to the eagles over the short driftwood fence she had made around her motor home. By the end of that spring, a half-dozen eagles were showing up for breakfast. The eagles departed with the arrival of summer, when the Spit became more active with human visitors, but they returned in the winter when the tourist season had ended, and she resumed the daily feeding.

By the end of ten years, 200 to 300 eagles would show up every day to feed during the winter and early springtime months. She had her hands full! She talked her employer into giving her freezer-burned and spoiled fish, and she spent three hours every morning feeding the eagles. More from her page:

Her fish supply included surplus and freezer-burned fish from fish processing facilities still on the Spit, her own purchases using her limited funds from Social Security or retirement benefits, or fish contributed by her supporters. Visitors could come and watch the eagles Keene fed on the Spit at no cost, but were asked to stay in their cars for their own safety and for the safety of the eagles.

Jean received lots of attention from her activity and was written up in Reader's Digest, People, and the National Geographic magazine, among others. The hotel owners in the area loved the business that came from people watching and photographing the eagles. But once Jean died, the city passed an ordinance that prohibited the feeding of predatory birds. Apparently she got more than she bargained for! This Spit is where I think these pictures came from, and they are all over the Internet. It was a fascinating journey to see what can happen when you start feeding the birds, both for good and for ill.

Eagles were declared an endangered species in 1967 in all states, partly because of habitat loss and hunters, and partly because DDT, which was widespread at the time, softened the eagles' eggshells and the young did not survive. Eventually they began to recover once DDT was banned, and in 2007 the Interior Department removed them from the endangered species list. And now they are most prevalent on the Pacific Northwest coast, where I have been fortunate enough to get so accustomed to seeing them that I don't take pictures of every one. And one last picture for you to enjoy:

:-)