Hundreds of bald eagles return to Lake Coeur d’Alene for yearly salmon feast
It doesn’t take long to spot a bald eagle along the Lake Coeur d’Alene shoreline in December, with hundreds of birds flocking to the area to feast during the annual kokanee salmon spawn.
Indeed, the first thing greeting visitors to Higgens Point is the crisp smell of rain coupled with decaying fish as thousands of dead kokanee pile up on rocky beaches. The eagles and their eager human observers don’t seem to mind.
Jerry Vick, 62, treks from Hayden to visit the eagles around once a week while they are in the area. He described Tuesday as a “wonderful cloudy day.”
“You don’t have to go very far to see some wonderful things in the world,” Vick said. An eagle perched stock still in a pine tree just ahead, and another soared over the lake.
The eagles would “talk” every so often, Vick said, but for the most part were silent. A hobby photographer, he quickly snapped photos of any eagle that gave him the chance.
He was not the only photographer in the area.
People dressed head to toe in camouflaged outdoor gear walked cameras with footlong lenses and tripods to cliffside clearings, while more casual viewers brought their handhelds.
Ted and Noreen Thomas celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary looking at the eagles, driving over from Moses Lake to do so. Noreen had seen others’ photos of the birds on social media.
“I think this will be a tradition,” she said, adding that next year they will need to get a bigger lens for the occasion.
Carrie Hugo, a Bureau of Land Management biologist, is responsible for counting the number of Eagles that come to Lake Coeur d’Alene each year. While it is inevitable that she misses or double counts some birds on her weekly 14 -mile round, Tuesday she saw 100 adult bald eagles and 12 juveniles.
These numbers are down from 2023 – a record -breaking year for the eagles, with a staggering 409 counted on Dec. 20 – but overall fit within an upward trend for the area.
The increase in eagles in the area is directly connected to the spawning of kokanee salmon in the area, Hugo said. The fishes’ spawning season lines up perfectly with the normal southern migration of the raptors from British Columbia.
“Kokanee were not put in the lake for bald eagles. They were put there for anglers,” Hugo said. “It’s like all the stars aligned to give us this cool seasonal phenomenon.”
Kokanee, which are landlocked sockeye salmon, were introduced to Lake Coeur d’Alene in 1937. They take four years to reach sexual maturity and spawn.
Biologists try to predict the number of spawning fish and have determined that next year, for example, may be less numerous, said Mike Thompson with Idaho Fish and Game. While the kokanee may be less numerous, Thompson said, they may tend to get bigger as a tradeoff due to a lack of competition.
The spectacle in Coeur d’Alene is one of the eagles’ last big gatherings as they near their varying southern destinations, Hugo said.
“It’s like going to Vegas for an all -you -can -eat buffet and then heading out somewhere else from there,” she said.