On October 4th, 2022 one of my boys and I hiked out along Elk Creek from the highway to the Salmon River. It was a good hike. Once we reached the river we could see lots of big chum spawning. This is what we had come to see. As we were hiking along the river, but up in the forest we came across a Bald Eagle in distress. We could not capture him and as it was close to dark, we had to leave, this bird was not in good shape.
The next morning, I headed back down the mile or so to where we had seen him. I assumed I was going to retrieve his body. To my surprise, he was up and feisty, but still not doing well. I ran back to the road and drove to the Fisher Boy Campground to see if my friends, Frank and Faith would have a cage, gloves and a cover. They did. My friend Mark Baker was also there and volunteered to help me catch the eagle. We did manage this and then packed the cage out to my car. I then drove home and picked up my wife Gina who would accompany me on the journey to the Mars rehab center.
The eagle arrived alive and has a great potential to pull through this, they believe he has lead poisoning. Once he is ready to be released, they will allow me to pick him up and bring him back to Sayward and release him here.
I have never held an eagle in my arms before, it was a very humbling experience. I feel a certain sense of bonding with this bird, although that may only be on my side of it all.
Sorry to say, he did not survive.
The Pacific Northwest has a large population of Bald Eagles. Sometimes when the herring spawn begins, you can find them in the hundreds in trees that overlook the sea.
The adult bald eagle is easy to identify, but the immature birds are easily confused with the golden eagle, both have dark brown bodies, but the golden eagle has a much redder colour to it and his head is almost golden. It is 5 years before the bald eagle fully matures.
The bald eagle will build huge nests made of sticks and will quite often return to the same nest year after year. Sometimes these nests can get to be over ten feet wide and eight feet tall.
When l was a young man, l owned a couple of guide boats and spent my summers fishing with guests who were looking to hook into one of our big tyee salmon. Once in a while, you would hook into a small codfish that would not survive the trip to the surface, instead of just throwing these fish back, I would keep them on board until l saw an eagle perched over the water in a tree.
I would tell my guests to get their cameras out and when they were ready to take pics, l would toss the small cod a short distance from the boat.
Upon seeing the fish, the eagle would launch himself from his perch and with majestic form, would snatch the fish from the sea with his bright yellow talons, providing my guests with some awesome photos to take back home.
There are so many eagles on our coast, and it is such a wonder to watch them as they go about their day.