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I had Richard the taxi driver (and fledgling novelist) drop me off on the spit at Homer, Alaska. First, however he took me past a light pole with some eagles on it at the cannery parking lot, when I got out of the taxi to photograph them, they just laughed at me and flew away. He also drove me by, and introduced me to Jean 'the Eagle Lady', she's been feeding Homer's winter eagles for over twenty years from fish scraps from the cannery. Jean had cancer then, and may not be arround at the trailer on the spit.* But the eagles will be there. I spent all afternoon hanging out on the spit waiting for my taxi plane ride to McNeil, and, while I was there on the beach, a couple of eagles came by and danced for me. December 2005: Ten years on, with the cannery gone after it burned down a few years ago, and the eagles multiplying in numbers, Jean's eagle feeding had become more controversial. Follow the links below for more information, and the 2005 State Board of Game proposals to limit wildlife feeding. In 2006, while everyone else had to stop, Jean was given a 2010 deadline to stop feeding the eagles. If I hadn't made that visit with Jean then, it's clear to me that those eagles would not have stopped by later to dance on the Homer Spit. And I wouldn't have the story seen in the photographs of Distant Legacy, Distant Relations, The Flight of the Salmon Bird * 13 January 2009: Homer's 'Eagle Lady' passes away at 85 |
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