Record eagle count at Lake Coeur d’Alene

A new record for bald eagles was set Wednesday during their annual gathering at Lake Coeur d’Alene to feed on spawning kokanee.

Carrie Hugo, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management wildlife biologist, counted 383 bald eagles in the Wolf Lodge Bay area, up from 314 counted on Nov. 30.

Before this record-setting eagle migration to the lake, Hugo’s record count was 273 on Dec. 29, 2011.

The eagles are lured each year to the Wolf Lodge Bay area of the lake where kokanee – a landlocked sockeye salmon – stack up to spawn and die from November into January.

Eagle watchers also have been flocking to the northeast corner of the lake south of Interstate 90, and they haven’t been disappointed. Hugo said that late in the afternoon, as the eagles began their night roost, she counted 53 birds in one small area.

Wednesday’s count included 326 adults with white heads and 56 juvenile eagles that won’t have the namesake “bald” head until about age 4. Wild bald eagles can live about 30 years.

Hugo counted 37 eagles on Nov. 15 during her first weekly survey of this year’s eagle-watching season.

Last year, the congregation at Lake Coeur d’Alene peaked in December at around 260 birds, according to Hugo’s surveys.

Good eagle-viewing areas around Wolf Lodge Bay include Higgens Point and turnouts off U.S. Highway 97, including Mineral Ridge.

Idaho State Patrol officers warn eagle viewers that traffic rules must be followed and vehicles must be parked properly off the highway.