Posted: December 27, 2009 - 2:00 AM
CORNWALL — Shoppers stared in amazement last week at a bald eagle soaring on seven-foot wings over New Windsor's Kmart.
Just think. You can go shopping and see an eagle.
We went from about zilch bald eagles around here in the 1960s (DDT whomped their eggs), to today having goodly numbers both in winter and during spring and summer. Why? Because they like our food.
They're scarfing up Hudson River sushi made by local power plant intakes and gobbling easy-to-grab fish all along the Delaware River. In lakes, too.
Listen, if you've got enough eagles to hold the ninth Narrowsburg EagleFest on Jan. 16 in Sullivan County (see
www.dveaglealliance.org), you're looking at a huge comeback by a species people once gave up for dead east of the Mississippi.
The EagleFest offers a full day of science, live predators on display, and nearby wild eagle viewing.
And there's more good news for eagle-maniacs.
This year for the first time since the 1890s, some say at least one and maybe two stunning wild, golden eagles (necks are gold colored in adults and juveniles) are gliding around the Hudson Highlands.
Listen to eagle-addled Gerhard Patch, president of the Edgar A. Mearns Bird Club.
"I stopped on Route 9W at a pull-off and got the golden eagle and he was being harassed by a peregrine falcon," recalls Patch. "They put on quite a show. It was something to see." As in dive bombing by the falcon and upside-down mid-air rolls by the eagle (talons up).
Stunning, too, are groups of bald eagles perching on Hudson River ice floes.
They're a mix of Canadian, local and other visiting bald eagles who spend the winter with us.
For some, this is the start of the nesting season. Babies mean extra eats, and the mid-Hudson larder is well-stocked with all kinds of fish. (There's even a man-made perch at Central Hudson's Newburgh power plant complex.).
So, with all our state-threatened eagles around, are we going to outclass Alaska's bald eagle festival? Not right away. They've got an unfair advantage — salmon. So at their November bash they counted 3,000 hungry bald eagles.
Still, we're piling on the numbers. Just how many bald eagles we're hosting is an annual count for the DEC, whose endangered species unit is asking for ground-level volunteer eagle spotters.
Unit chief Peter Nye says anyone can volunteer. The count goes from Wednesday through Jan. 13. (Get in touch at penye@gw.dec.state.ny.us.) Results will be fed into a 25-year national and regional trend analysis, which is going to give the best profile so far of how the eagles are doing nationwide and on the state level.
Warning: Though eagles are now viewing staples even from Metro-North trains, don't even think about bothering them. You might have to pony up a $100,000 federal fine and spend a year in the clink. (State penalties apply, too.) Instead, be satisfied with having your spirits boosted. Especially from the car-choked asphalt of a shopping mall.
