Bald Eagles in Alaska - University of Alaska Southeast

435 Pages·2008·10.45 MB·English

Bald Eagles
in Alaska

Bruce A. Wright and Phil Schempf, eds.
0
Bald Eagles in Alaska
Bruce A. Wright and Phil Schempf, eds.

Text copyright © 2008 Bald Eagle Research Institute

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission from the
Bald Eagle Research Institute, University of Alaska Southeast, 11120 Glacier Hwy.
Juneau, Alaska 99801.

ISBN XXXXXXXXXXXX

Cover photo by David Predeger.
1
Preface
Marshall Lind
Chancellor, University of Alaska, Southeast, Juneau, Alaska

As one who never tires of the presence of Bald Eagles in our Alaskan environment, it is a
particular pleasure for me to introduce this unique book. I feel confident you will share
my enthusiasm as you read through Bald Eagles in Alaska. The book is unique because
almost all of the authors are long time Alaskans who know Bald Eagles, not as an
endangered species, but as an integral part of the avifauna of the 49th state. Chapters in
this text present a range of topics on culture, conservation and management as well as
sound scientific data. Various papers cover the Alaska habitat from the northern
rainforest to the treeless Aleutian Islands. Diverse human attitudes are presented from the
Tlingit Indians to the bounty hunters; from the modern conservationists of Haines to the
ambitious people of New York who are trying to replace their diminished eagle
population with Bald Eagle stock from Alaska. In short, Bald Eagles in Alaska offers the
best portrait that has ever been assembled in the status and ecology of Bald Eagles in
Alaska.

Photo: Governor Hammond (left) and Chancellor Lind (right) enjoy a good laugh at a
Bald Eagle Research Institute meeting in Juneau, Alaska. Photo by Scott Foster.

You can read from cover to cover or
browse here and there from chapter to
chapter. In either case, you will have a
rewarding experience whether you are
a casual reader, a biology student or a
raptor scientist. As a bonus, you will
get a bit of a sense of the enthusiastic
reverence Alaskans (and some neigh-
bors from Canada and other states)
feel for their land and its resources.
The genesis of this fine volume was at
a Juneau conference in November,
1990, hosted by the American Bald
Eagle Research Institute of the
University of Alaska, Southeast
(UAS). The objective was to produce a
reader to complement the correspondence study course in Bald Eagles offered by the
biology department at UAS and to produce a compendium of the most current
information on Bald Eagles of Alaska and Yukon for use by the scientific community and
enjoyment of the general public. My thanks to all the splendid authors who present their
work here and my warmest regards to all the Bald Eagle enthusiasts who read this book.

2
Forward
Bruce A. Wright James G. King and G. Vernon
1,2 3
Byrd
4
Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Conservation Science Institute, U.S. Fish and
1 2 3
Wildlife Service, retired, Alaska Maritime NWR, 95 Sterling Hwy, Homer, AK 99603
4

In November 1990 the University of Alaska, Southeast (UAS) and the Bald Eagle
Research Institute hosted a symposium on Bald Eagles in Juneau, Alaska. The original
intent was to provide a reader for the UAS correspondence study course, Bald Eagles in
Alaska's Coastal Rain Forest, but there was also a plan to publish the proceedings.

For various reasons, the work was not published in a timely fashion. After the passage of
so many years, we almost abandoned this project because only “hard copies” of original
contributions were available. Nevertheless, our “ad hoc” team decided that the
information contained in these papers is important enough to justify the time and energy
required to produce this book. We could not have done it without the significant
contribution of Sharon Baur at Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, who
methodically scanned every page, photograph and graphic from the only extant complete
set of manuscripts.

Clearly, additional information has been learned about eagles in Alaska since these
papers were written in 1990, but we have not asked all authors to update their
contributions from the original symposium. Indeed some of the authors are now
deceased. We did include some recent, invited contributions to make the volume a more
complete picture of Alaska’s Bald Eagles at the end of the 20th century. All papers have
been peer reviewed.

We believe this book is still the best compilation of information about Bald Eagles in
Alaska and therefore will be useful to scientists, resource managers, students and the
public. Therefore we are pleased to offer this compilation to major libraries in Alaska and
via the internet.

The volume should be cited as:
Wright, B. A. and P. F. Schempf, eds. 2008. Bald Eagles in Alaska. Bald Eagle Research
Institute, University of Alaska Southeast, 11120 Glacier Hwy., Juneau, Alaska
99801

Citations for individual papers would be for example:
Isleib, M. E. “Pete.” 2008. Avian Resources of Southeast Alaska: A Brief Review and
Their Importance to Eagles. Pages 68-71. In: Wright, B. A. and P. F. Schempf,
eds. Bald Eagles in Alaska.

3
Contents

Preface
Marshall Lind ……………………………………………………………… 2

Forward
Bruce A. Wright, James G. King and G. Vernon Byrd ……………………. 3

Table of Contents
.……………………………………. 4

Introduction
Bruce A. Wright and Phil Schempf ………………………………………… 8

The Southeast Alaska Environment
19

Bald Eagles and Their Meaning to the Tlingit People
of Southeast Alaska
Paul Marks …………………………………………………………………… 20

The Bald Eagle in American Culture
James G. King ………………………………………………………………. 25

Geology of Southeast Alaska: With Special Emphasis
on the Last 30,000 Years
Cathy L. Connor……………………………………………………………. 30

Ecological Characteristics of Temperate Rain Forests: Some
Implications for Management of Bald Eagle Habitat
Paul B. Alaback ……………………………………………………………… 36

The Importance of Fish to Bald Eagles in Southeast Alaska: A Review
Robert H. Armstrong …………………………………………………………. 54

Avian Resources of Southeast Alaska: A Brief Review and Their
Importance to Eagles
M. E. "Pete" Isleib ……………………………………………………………. 68

4
Bald Eagle Biology
72

Time Budgets and Behavior of Nesting Bald Eagles
Steven L. Cain …………………………………………………………. 73

Perspectives on the Breeding Biology of Bald Eagles in
Southeast Alaska
Scott M. Gende ………………………………………………………… 95

Habitat Relationships of Bald Eagles in Alaska
Lowell H. Suring ……………………………………………………… 106

The Population Ecology of Bald Eagles Along the Pacific
Northwest Coast
Andrew Hansen, Ervin L. Boeker and John I. Hodges ……………… 117

Eagles on the Chilkat: Winter Ecology
Erwin L. Boeker ……………………………………………………… 134

Causes of Mortality in Alaskan Bald Eagles
Nancy J. Thomas ……………………………………………………… 138

Population History and Status
150

The Status of the Bald Eagle in Southeast Alaska
Michael J. Jacobson ………………………………………………… 151

Nesting and Productivity of Bald Eagles in Southeast Alaska-1966
Fred C. Robards and James G. King ………………………………… 157

Bald Eagle Productivity in Southcentral Alaska in 1989 and 1990
After the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Jeffrey A. Bernatowicz, Philip F. Schempf and Timothy D. Bowman … 168

History and Status of Bald Eagle Nesting and Productivity on the
Kodiak Island Archipelago, Alaska
Dennis C. Zwiefelhofer ………………………………………………… 189

Distribution, Abundance and Status of Bald Eagles in Interior
Alaska
Robert J. Ritchie and Robert E. Ambrose ……………………………… 198

5
Nesting and Wintering Bald Eagle Population Parameters on and Adjacent
to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, 1979-1990
Theodore N. Bailey, Edward E. Bangs, William W Larned Andre J.
Loranger, Mary F. Portner, Thomas V. Schumacher and Elizabeth
A. Jozwiak ……………………………………………………………… 210

History and Status of Bald Eagle Population and Productivity
Studies on the Alaska Peninsula, Alaska
Donna A. Dewhurst …………………………………………………… 225

Distribution and Status of Bald Eagles in the Aleutian Islands
G. Vernon Byrd and Jeffrey C. Williams ……………………………… 236

Bald Eagles in Western Alaska
John M. Wright ………………………………………………………… 251

The Status of Bald Eagles in the Yukon Territory, Canada
D. H. Mossop ………………………………………………………… 258

Current Management
267

Shoot the Damned Things! Alaska's War Against the American
Bald Eagle
R. N. DeArmond …………………………………………………… 268

Law Enforcement and the Bald Eagle Protection Act
Jerry A. Cegelske …………………………………………………… 275

Cooperative Management of the Bald Eagle in South Coastal Alaska
Fred B. Samson ……………………………………………………… 281

Removal of Alaskan Bald Eagles for Translocation to Other States
Michael J. Jacobson ………………………………………………… 288

A Review of the Natural History of a Reestablished Population
of Breeding Bald Eagles in New York
Peter E. Nye ………………………………………………………… 297

Human Disturbance and Bald Eagles
James D. Fraser and Robert G. Anthony …………………………… 306

Bald Eagle Reaction to Construction on Back Island, Alaska
Jackie Canterbury …………………………………………………… 315

6
Nesting Bald Eagles in Urban Areas of Southeast Alaska
Nathan P. Johnson …………………………………………………… 325

Habitat Structure of Bald Eagle Nest Sites and Management
Zones near Juneau, Alaska
M. Hildegard Reiser and James P. Ward, Jr. ……………………… 344

The Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve: How It All Began
Raymond R. Menaker ……………………………………………… 354

Bald Eagle Banding in Alaska
Kimberly Titus and Mark R. Fuller …………………………………… 359

Survey Techniques for Bald Eagles in Alaska
John I. Hodges ………………………………………………………… 367

Graphic Depiction of Bald Eagle Habitat Use Patterns
Richard E. Yates, B. Riley McClelland and Carl H. Key ……………… 377

Behavioral Studies in the Alaska Rain Forest
Johanna Fagen and Robert Fagen …………………………………… 388

Photographing Bald Eagles
Robert H. Armstrong ………………………………………………… 395

Raptor Rehabilitation
Noele Weemes ………………………………………………………… 403

Bald Eagles in a Changing Land
409
Bald Eagle Research Needs and Opportunities in Southeast Alaska
James G. King …………………………………………………………. 410

The Bald Eagle Bibliography
Annette Nelson-Wright …………………………………………………. 414

Bald Eagles and the Tourist Industry in Alaska
Judy Shuler …………………………………………………………… 416

The Haines Story
David E. Olerud ………………………………………………………… 419

American Bald Eagles At Home in the World
Hans C. Fluehler ………………………………………………………… 423

Index
………………………………………………………………. 426
7
Introduction

Bruce A. Wright and Phil Schempf
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Juneau, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, Juneau, AK

None of God’s creatures more inspires patriotic pride, communion with the natural
world and majesty than does the eagle. May their tribe increase, along with the
ennoblement their presence brings to humankind.
Jay S. Hammond (1922-2006)

What is it about Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) that catches the eye of people?
Is it simply their size
or striking
appearance? Is it the
power they display or
the majesty they
symbolize (King
1998)? Ever since
man first entered the
kingdom of the Bald
Eagle more than
10,000 years ago,
eagles have attracted
the attention of
humans. Bald Eagles
continue to command
our respect, challenge
our understanding of
the natural world and
allow our hearts to
soar as if lifted by
their strong wings.

The editors, Bruce Wright (left) and Phil Schempf (right) admire a male Bald Eagle.
Photo by Scott Foster.

Editor’s note: Bruce Wright’s new affiliations are Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association
and the Conservation Science Institute.

8
Figure 1. Bald Eagle nests outline the
shores of Admiralty Island, a center of
abundance for nesting Bald Eagles.
USFWS unpublished data.

To many, the sight of a Bald Eagle in the
wild adds a spiritual dimension to an
outdoor adventure. When a visitor to
Alaska stops to watch an eagle glide by
or pass high overhead, one can picture
that same person, months later, pausing
in their busy life in a busy city, staring
out a window into the smog and they
again see the Bald Eagle, feel the Bald
Eagle, know the Bald Eagle is the keeper
of their wilderness spirit. People need to
know that eagles fly free, wolves howl in
the moonlight, Sandhill Cranes cover the
Earth with their majestic yet forlorn calls
as they migrate to their wilderness
nesting grounds. These symbols hold our
spirituality and allow people to
understand we still belong to the
wilderness.

In 1990, the University of Alaska Southeast hosted a two day symposium to discuss our
understanding and share our enthusiasm for the Bald Eagles of Alaska. Appropriately, we
met in Southeast Alaska, "the center of the universe for Bald Eagles" said Mike Jacobson,
biologist for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There may be more than 100,000 Bald
Eagles across the continent from nesting areas in Florida and northern Mexico to their
northern extent in the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska. The comparatively small area
encompassed in Southeast Alaska is home to roughly one-fifth of the world's Bald Eagle
population. The densest known breeding population occurs on Admiralty Island with
nearly 1,029 catalogued nests along 860 shoreline miles (Figure 1). It's no wonder the
symposium took place in the Bald Eagle's stronghold.

Scientific books tend to reduce their subject to a recitation of technical observations and
statistical results. This book brings together writings from scientists and others in a
diversity of disciplines, who provide key information on the ecology and management of
Bald Eagles and who approach them with different perspectives. Within these pages are
the facts and figures of Bald Eagle ecology (Boeker 2008, Cain 2008, Hansen et al. 2008,
Suring 2008 and Thomas 2008) and current management issues (Canterbury 2008, Fraser
and Anthony 2008, Reiser and Ward 2008, Johnson 2008, Menaker 2008, Samson 2008)
to topics as disparate as the meaning of the eagle to the Tlingit people who lived with
them for thousands of years (Marks 2008).

9