Date: Jan. 2Mileage: 8.7
January mileage: 26.9
Temperature upon departure: 25
Today I did an hour on the trainer and then went out for a punchy but exhilarating 8-mile night ride on the ski trails around my house. I have to admit, I'm going to be a little bummed when winter ends and all the good trail riding around here melts into the sog and bog of summer. I'm going to have to take up sea kayaking because the biking's gonna be bad :-)
Homer's infamous Eagle Lady restarted her annual bald eagle feeding frenzy recently. The population that consisted of a few dozen resident eagles is quickly growing to a few hundred. And while her well-meaning eagle baiting brings amazing photographic opportunities to the masses, I'm a bit torn on the issue of blatantly habituating wild animals. If you leave your garbage out where bears can get to it, you'll be fined - but somehow artificially supporting a nationally protected raptor is legal. The Eagle Lady claims the eagles wouldn't survive without her selfless charity. But they were doing just fine before she moved here - wintering in other places around Alaska, where they could still ride the thermal drafts over coastal mountains and hunt for their food. Now they all congregate in Homer and fight for scraps.
Wildlife officials say Homer's shorebird populations have suffered since the eagles started coming here in droves. My co-worker swears that his little Yorkie puppy was carried away by an eagle. He followed the Yorkie's tracks until they just ended in an untouched field of snow, specked only by a few drops of blood. It seemed as though if his dog was lifted up by the Rapture (or raptor). In the end, eagle baiting just isn't natural. But it's a touchy subject in this town. I'd be interested to hear what nonlocals think about bald eagle baiting.
Habituating wild animals, although endangered, is 95% of the time a very bad idea.
ReplyDeleteExcept in extreme cases of near extinction (i.e. the California Condor), a species, along with the prey and habitat of the species, should be protected - not created.
It seems to me that the Eagle Lady has entered into an unsustainable relationship with the local eagle population. At the age of 81, spending thousands of dollars a month, and feeding what seems to be an ever-growing population of domesticated bald eagles - she certainly has her work cut out for her.
Here in Minnesota, the eagle has made an amazing comeback. The National Raptor Center is in Wabasha, on the banks of the Mississippi River. To my knowledge, no one is feeding them -- there is plenty of food available. When the river begins to freeze over, they congregate by the dozens on the ice near open water -- it is quite the sight. I agree with Budda43 -- they should not be fed. They survivived for years without our help and we are the reason they were nearing extinction.
ReplyDeleteSea kayaking eh? You will love it and given where you live, there must be many many beautiful places to paddle.
Happy New Year
Kevin
A raptorous rapture -- I like that word picture :-)
ReplyDeleteIn the lower 48 the bald eagles all congregate around chicken and turkey sheds and scavenge the dead poultry the farmers throw out. Geese have also stopped migrating because parks and golf courses are so accommodating to them. Feeding the eagles is a bad idea, but there are worse sins out there.
Hi Jill - Great blog! Just zipped over here from TravelWriters...Didn't realize you are a cyclist too...I'm a road cyclist/triathlete...LOVE the descriptions of riding in Alaska - it's far different to my Chattanooga, Tennessee (Southeast) mountains and a hell of a lot colder too! Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteI'm adding your blog to my list!
Emma
(p.s. my blogger link takes you to my 'old' blog - the new one is http://www.moderngirlskitchen.com).
Eagles have something regal about them when they're living their lives the way that they were meant to, naturally. Baiting them seems to be going against the whole reason to take pictures of eagles... that feeling of awe and wonder and sort of the honor of having an eagle in your presence. Their majesty is diminished by this practice, I think.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, and completely off-topic, I work for a TV show, and one of the first jobs that our director had was as a production assistant on "The Cannibal Pirahna Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death" ... small world, isn't it?
BC
http://www.thesteeps.net