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. Wright1,2 James G. King3 and G. Vernon Byrd4 1Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, 2Conservation Science Institute, 3U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, retired, 4Alaska Maritime NWR, 95 Sterling Hwy, Homer, AK 99603 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