Hundreds of bald eagles, perhaps even thousands, are expected to make their annual pilgrimage this November to Brackendale, B.C. The community is located just 30 minutes south of Whistler, which will play host to the alpine skiing, bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events during the Games.
Brackendale already lays claim to its own world record of sorts -- 15 years ago, more than 3,700 bald eagles were counted along the Squamish River.
Brackendale Art Gallery owner Thor Froslev proudly insists that makes the community the eagle capital of the world. A retired longshoreman who grew up in Denmark, he has called Brackendale home for the last four decades.
On countless occasions he's watched as one of the mighty birds silently swept down on its prey in the dead of winter, but it's the record 1994 eagle count that holds a special place in Froslev's heart. It allowed Brackendale to stick it to its eagle-watching nemesis, Haines, Alaska.
"I said to myself, 'Now, don't be the kind of guy that would phone up Haines, Alaska, and brag because we knew that was the world record,' " Froslev said, chuckling as he recounted the tale.
"But, of course, Monday morning I phoned up Haines, Alaska, and told them about it. So now there's a friendly rivalry."
Dave Olerud, founder of the American Bald Eagle Foundation and a former mayor of Haines, says the real joy comes not from one-upping Brackendale but from seeing the looks on people's faces when the birds take off.
"Brackendale has their gathering of the eagles, they're very proud of it. ... Rivalry is always wonderful if we keep it in the proper perspective," he said.
The eagles are drawn to the area by the abundance of chum salmon in the Squamish, Cheakamus, and Mamquam rivers and those hoping to view the birds have several options. They can walk to a vantage point and watch the birds sit on trees like huge Christmas ornaments or take a river rafting trip.
"On one of the trips I was on last year, there was an old log that was sticking out over top of the river and literally we went right underneath an eagle," said Murray Seward, general manager for Canadian Outback Adventures. "We were within five or six feet of it and it didn't even move."
Canadian Outback Adventures' bald eagle safari tours run between November and February, and Seward says the rafting expeditions are popular with clients from all over the world. "It's a very, very quiet gorgeous place," said Seward. "Typically, there's probably some fog on the river, some mist, you've got the beautiful forest in behind the river and the mountains and then you've got hundreds to thousands of eagles sitting on either the trees or along the riverbank, picking away at the salmon that have spawned."
Seward gushed over the speed with which the eagles, who are careful to minimize their movements in the cold winter months, can fly.
"You can see them focusing on something, there may be a salmon that's recently come up onto the riverbank," he said. "You can see (a bald eagle) bee-line it from ages away to get to it. It's quite amazing."
Fiona Dyer, general manager of the Squamish-based Sunwolf Outdoor Centre, says her company also offers rafting trips and 15 years into the job she's still floored by every eagle she sees. "I never cease to get excited by it when I see all the eagles and how close you can get to them," she said. "They're so huge, they're so majestic and there's so many of them."
The number of bald eagles visiting Brackendale has dropped. Between 1992 and 2007, the count was never less than 1,300, but in 2008, that figure dropped to 893 and this year it fell to 755.
Myke Chutter, a bird specialist with B.C.'s environment ministry, says there's no cause for alarm as the overall number of bald eagles in B.C. remains firm at 60,000 and the species is by no means endangered. The birds are just going somewhere other than Brackendale.
"I can only presume that for whatever reason, the food resource has either declined there or improved significantly nearby, such that the birds are choosing a different site," he said.
Contact Canadian Outback Adventures at canadianoutback.com and Sunwolf Outdoor Centre at sunwolf.net.
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