Eagle's Landing

Yesterday, Janet was manning the office, but I wandered over there to tell her something. I found her standing at the window that overlooks the Kenai River Flats which lead to the Kenai River. That's one of the great rivers for salmon fishing, and is where Ian better be when they start running! Anyway, Janet turned, saw it was me, and waved for me to come over to the window. "Look at that eagle up in that tree, right over there, right on top!" she exclaimed. Indeed, this huge eagle that looked quite proud and regal was perched on the tippety-top of a huge tree (I'm not sure what kind, just very, very tall) that was swaying in the wind. We were amazed at how well it kept its balance with only an occasional flutter of its wings. Our friend had the typical white head and tail that all eagles over 5 years of age have.

While Janet kept her eye on the eagle, I ran back to our 5th wheel and got the camera. I rushed back, hoping he was still there. Sure enough, he was still at the top of the tree, just hanging out, observing his kingdom below. Janet and I sneaked quietly out on the deck, fearing we'd scare him away, as he was quite close (I'm no judge of distance, so can't say he was 50 feet or 100, but believe me, he was closer than I've ever been to any huge wild bird perched on a tree other than in a zoo!) In between taking pictures and exclaiming over his every move (his head swiveled nearly in a full circle, every time he heard a noise or thought he saw something.) A few times it seemed he was looking right at us, sizing us up as to whether we were friend or foe, or worthy of any kind of judgment in the first place.

Suddenly, another large eagle, again with white head and tail, came swooping up from the right of us, being chased and harrassed by a small white bird. We had to laugh, as the small bird was about the size of the eagle's foot, but he kept buzzing the eagle from the side, appearing to nip his wing tips. Finally, the eagle landed at the top of tree far to the left of the first eagle, just to have the small white bird sky dive at him. Once, twice, three times that little white bird showed the big bald eagle who was boss in their jungle. Every time he got attacked, the eagle buried his head in his shoulders, flapped his wings a bit, then straightened up once the attack was over, as if to say, "That wasn't so bad. Hopefully, no one saw it, though!"

As soon as the small white birds flew away, we heard various calls from unseen birds in the trees. I think they were passing the word that there were fish heads and fish scales down in the valley by the ranch. (Whenever they butcher a cow or pig, or fillet fish here, they throw the carcus out in the valley, and the eagles and other birds make short order of it in no time. I think they call that the circle of life? Or death? Definitely takes care of the old question, "What do we do with these old fish scales?" Anyway, suddenly, another huge black bird, this time a raven, came whizzing past, right in front of Janet and me. Right behind him were two more small white birds, again buzzing him and dive bombing from both directions. He flew a bit further over the flats and landed while the white birds flew off. We figured the white birds either had a nest where the larger birds were threatening it, or the white birds had staked their claim on the fish heads thrown out there yesterday and were letting the word out that they were not in a sharing mood.

Speaking of eagles, little Ian had a lesson in life that involved the eagle. He and Grandpa had walked down to the Kenai River to try their hand at fishing. Unfortuantely, the tide was out and the mud was too deep and like quick-sand to even attempt crossing it. On their way back, little Ian found a beautiful eagle's feather laying on the ground. It must have been a good 18 inches long, black along one side, and a beautiful shade of light gray down the other side. By the time they got home, Grandpa had him all excited at the prospects of taking it to school in the fall to show the kids, using it for reports, and just keeping it for a very special reminder of his time in Alaska. When I saw it, I was excited for him, too, and made a big deal of it. That evening the owners of the ranch were having a fish fry (the fish that donated to the food bank for the birds), so Ian was going to take the feather with him to show everyone. I explained the proper etiquette of showing it, like not tickling someone's nose with it, and we were off, excited to be the center of the party for a little while. But, as soon as we entered the deck, a woman about my age, with a short gray "bob" hair cut hurried over to us and asked Ian where he got the eagle feather. Of course, Ian thought she was really interested in hearing his story, so he said he and his grandpa found it down by the river. The bearer of bad tidings then asked, "Don't you know it's against the law to own an eagle's feather unless you're a Native American?" "No," Ian said. "It's OK. I found it." "Doesn't matter," said the authority. I truly thought she was joking around, so said something like "Yeah, right" and started to laugh. Then, a man, probably her husband, joined the conversation and said she was right. "That doesn't make sense," I said. "He didn't kill the eagle. There was no eagle, just the feather!" "Doesn't matter," he said. "He can't keep it." By this time, little Ian was nearly in tears, watching his grandma and other adults argue over his eagle feather and seeing the possibilty that someone may try to take it away from him. (Actually, I was afraid that these people were going to try to do just that!) So, I told him to take it home and I'd look into it later. After he was out of earshot, the lady apologized, said she didn't mean to upset him, but she didn't want to see him get in trouble. She also said she doesn't agree with the law, but that's the way it was. I thanked her for telling us and moved on in the room.

Later that evening, I looked it up on the internet (so much easier than dragging around a set of encyclopedias) and found there is a Bald and Golden Eagle Law that allows only Native Americans to possess the feather or any other part of the eagle, as they can use it for their religious and ceremonial activities. Anyone else can be fined up to $25,000, depending on how and why they came into possession of the feather. I guess it mainly keeps the number of poachers down, as eagles were on the endangered list at one time. So, anyway, the next morning Grandpa Ian called the Game and Wildlife Dept in the town down the road to double check the info from the internet, and sure enough, they requested Ian turn the illegal feather in to them. Now, you'd think at that point, we'd say the heck with it, no one will know he has it, and anyone in Alabama won't care, but by the time Ian actually talked to someone, they'd already gotten his name, address, phone number, so they knew where we were! Poor little Ian was beside himself - he didn't want to be a criminal, he didn't want Grandpa to go to jail, but he didn't want to turn in the feather, either. What's a 9-year old kid to do?? Once we got to the Game & Wild Live Preserve, the official games keeper spoke very kindly with Ian, explained why the law was in place, told him she was proud of him for turning it in, that the feather would be sent to a central depository (can you believe it??) in S. Dakota from which Native Americans can retrieve the feathers to make their headdresses or ceremonial paraphanalia. We took pictures of little Ian handing the eagle feather to the lady, her handing him a Junior Ranger pin. By that time, Ian felt the importance of what he'd done, so wasn't feeling so sorry for himself any longer. Of course, he still doesn't think it's fair, and either do we under the circumstances that he found the feather, but the law's the law.

So, we'll just be content on watching the antics of our beautiful national bird, take pride in his stature as he poses at the tops of trees swaying in the wind, and let our dreams soar with them as they command the skies over this little part of Alaska. Well, command as long as the little white birds don't see him!