Skip's Corner 06/12/2017

Eagles and Whales 
While it may not be politic to point out this fact, our national bird poops, and, as anyone who has walked through the whitewash at the base of an eagle nest tree can affirm, does so copiously. 
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So when Bob Armstrong, Juneau author, photographer and naturalist sent this picture of an eagle perched on top of my whale sculpture, I was not as charmed as some of my friends.  They were thinking of the interesting spectacle. I was envisioning the corrosive deposits that would result soon enough if eagles made a habit of perching there. Nor did the workmen preparing the whale site offer any comfort. They mentioned that the eagle had been there off and on for a week, seemingly unconcerned about heavy equipment moving about below it.  That got me thinking of ways to encourage eagles to go elsewhere. ​

Eagles insist on a lookout over a body of water, whether lake or river or sea, from which to keep watch for passing fish, To illustrate this, the shape and outline of hundred-mile long Admiralty Island, just west of Juneau, is easily described by a plot of eagle nests along its shores. ​

I should have foreseen the problem of eagles perching on the bronze whale.   Years ago I set an eagle perch pole into the beach in front of our house on Douglas Island, which is situated immediately across the fjord from Juneau. The pole is an old piling supplied by my friend Henry Tiffany, three or four decades ago.  With one end buried in the beach it stands, with a slight lean, at low tide, 12 or 14 feet high.   Its ‘freeboard” depends on the stage of the tide.  At high tide only a few feet project above the surface.   It is the only convenient perch for long distances up and down the beach.  True, there is the forest above the beach with lots of perches, but given the option, eagles, like airplanes, prefer unimpeded approaches and departures.  Why contend with intervening branches when there’s a pole out in the open?  So my out-in-the-open, easy on, easy off perch pole is popular with eagles, ravens, great blue herons, and belted kingfishers. Eagles use if frequently most days, and Lynn and I often have the pleasure of their presence.  Sometimes one arrives with a salmon, and stands on the pole to tear into it, ignoring pesky crow and raven hangers-on hoping for a share.  Sometimes one is perched there for hours, head bowed, enduring wind and rain, to spread its wings to dry when the storm abates.  After years in the intertidal, the venerable pole wears barnacles around its base and is topped with moss and an alder seedling. ​

So , returning to the sculpture site, maybe we provide the eagles more comfortable perches nearby.  Hard bronze can’t offer the best grip for their talons.  I think we need tall wooden pilings even closer to the sea than the whale, one to the northwest and one to the southeast of the sculpture. They should be at least as tall as the whale.   Another option would be to weld spikes on the end of the whale’s jaw and at the tip of the upraised fin.  Spikes would discourage perching but have the drawback of degrading the sculpture.  I think the poles are worth a try. 
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Either way, the sculpture is plumbed on the inside just waiting to be connected to a water source to create a tumultuous simulation of the briny sea carried aloft by a breaching whale. Come next spring, when the connections are complete and the fountain is turned on, any eagle perched on that whale is in for a mighty surprise. 

R T WALLEN