Eagles dine at their lake place

Four bald eagles crisscrossed the sky above Wolf Lodge Bay on Saturday morning. Below them, Kalispell, Mont., resident Jim Bradford carried his Canon EOS20 camera wrapped in a plastic bag as he trudged through the snow toward a clump of trees where several eagles were roosting.

It was his third straight day shooting pictures along the northeast shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene. Bradford has been making the pilgrimage to North Idaho for five years. The retired Montanan always drives on to the Tri-Cities to visit grandchildren after his eagle-watching. This year he hoped to get the one great eagle photo that always escaped him.

His glasses coated with snow, Bradford walked up along the trail and kept his eyes on the eagles overhead.

“I could make a whole book of butt shots and wings covering a bird’s head. But I still need to get one good shot of an eagle just as it grabs a fish from the lake,” said Bradford. “This might be the year.”

Along with roughly 200 others Saturday, Bradford gathered at one of North Idaho’s prime bald eagle viewing spots, the Higgens Point shoreline area. Right next to a spawning area for kokanee salmon, Higgens Point is where the regulars and the first-time eagle-watchers gather.

Mostly, it’s one of the easiest places in North America to enjoy the majestic raptor that is one of the West’s most noble birds, said Randall Butt, a park manager with the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.

Butt said this year’s bald eagles number roughly 70, down from the high of 130 seen in the area several years ago. They stop in North Idaho and other areas where fish are plentiful as they migrate from British Columbia to California.

Saturday’s morning snow and blustery winds kept away less hearty eagle-watchers, said Butt. He usually expects to see about 500 watchers on the weekends when the department staffs a viewer’s table, complete with free coffee, hot chocolate and cookies. Butt and his crew will man the tent and answer questions at Higgens Point from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today and next weekend.

One of his first visitors Saturday was Pennsylvania resident Michie Taylor, who peppered Butt with questions about the birds and their habits. Taylor, who lives in a Philadelphia suburb, was visiting North Idaho resident Kazue Krumpelman, a longtime friend. The two women visited the viewing area the two previous days and Taylor had insisted on coming back for another morning of watching.

“I’m a curious, nosy person,” laughed Taylor. “I want to ask all the questions I can think of. Life is mostly all about learning.”

John Renzie, a Spokane Valley resident, came about noon and spent 30 minutes asking Butt about feeding patterns and the eagles’ expected life span – about 15 years in the wild, he was told.

“This is my first time here,” said Renzie, who moved to Washington from San Diego three years ago when Buck Knives moved its factory and his job to Post Falls. “It’s a whole lot different than watching the sea animals at Sea World,” he said.