Out & About: Bald eagles gather at Lake CdA
OUTSOAR –The annual congregation of bald eagles at Lake Coeur d’Alene has begun as the big birds home in on the feast of spawning kokanee in the North Idaho lake.
Carrie Hugo, U.S. Bureau of Land Management wildlife biologist, performed her first eagle survey of the season Monday and counted 26 bald eagles in Wolf Lodge Bay.
“We’re off to a good start,” she said.
In 2015, only two bald eagles showed up for Hugo’s first weekly count of the season. But a week later on Nov. 26 last year, she counted 54.
The gathering soared to 126 bald eagles on Dec. 10, 2015.
Bald eagles also are showing up to feed on spawning kokanee at Priest Lake and Lake Pend Oreille, but the birds that return to Coeur d’Alene’s Wolf Lodge Bay are notably accessible for viewing south of Interstate 90 at Higgens Point and off Highway 97.
The eagles provide a popular wildlife-viewing attraction with numbers of birds and viewers increasing into December.
License plates boost
backcountry sportsmen
OUTLICENSE – The Backcountry Hunters & Anglers are the latest sportsmen’s group to take advantage of a Montana license plate program that benefits nonprofit groups.
“There’s quite a few plates with different designs to represent elk, deer and trout groups, so we jumped in late last year,” said Land Tawney, BHA president in Missoula.
A donor put up the money to design artwork for state approval. Consumers pay an extra $25 fee for the vanity plates that goes to the nonprofit group.
In the case of BHA, “The plate already has generated nearly $20,000, mostly by word of mouth,” Tawney said.
The BHA license plate is in a catalog available at license dealers, but it still hadn’t been included on the state’s licensing website as of last week.
“The money is helping pay for a chapter coordinator position to work on issues such as protecting rivers and programs that conserve land and provide public access,” Tawney said.
“It’s another way to create some awareness of what we’re doing and what needs to be done.”
Women-only trips
beckon kayakers
OUTPADDLE – “My Sea-kayak Adventures with the Girls,” will be presented at 7 p.m. on Monday for the Spokane Canoe & Kayak Club at Mountain Gear Corporate Headquarters, 6021 E. Mansfield Ave. in Spokane Valley.
The free slide program will be presented by Debbie Pierce as she shares highlights of annual women-only kayak trips to the Gulf Islands, Broken Islands and Johnstone Strait off of Vancouver Island, Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska, Green River in Utah and Ross Lake in Washington’s North Cascades.
Pierce, who points out that she also enjoys trips with her husband and mixed groups, said the program’s photos and stories will help explain why girls-only kayak adventures are so special.