COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Carrie Hugo has been counting bald eagles around Lake Coeur d'Alene for the Bureau of Land Management for 15 years.
None like this year.
“I was really not expecting so many eagles this year,” she said Tuesday.
But they’re out there in record numbers. Hundreds of them. In trees. Gliding with the wind. Soaring high to catch the sunlight or swooping low to snag a kokanee on the surface of Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Using binoculars, Hugo counted 363 adult bald eagles and 46 juveniles for a total of 409 on Dec. 20. The prior week, she counted 339 adults and 40 juveniles for a total of 379. Both broke the previous record of 372 set Dec. 7, 2017.
The biologist said it’s been a banner year for photographers and eagle lovers as the great birds have stayed around since beginning to arrive in early November thanks to abundant kokanee and mild weather.
“They’ll stay as long as the kokanee are spawning,” Hugo said.
She said she has never seen the shorelines near Higgens Point, Wolf Lodge Bay and Beauty Bay so littered with dead kokanee.
But the spawning is tailing off and by early January their numbers are expected to decline. Only a few will remain by mid-January.
“The eagles should start leaving pretty quick here,” Hugo said.
Bald eagles generally have been more active on the south side of the lake than Higgens Point giving Lake Coeur d'Alene Cruises guests a good view.
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