Mr. Vanderbrink incorrectly stated that the city of Homer still feeds “tons of fish wastes to hordes of gulls” at a feeding station. However, there are open fish waste bins at fish cleaning sites and the city should cover them to discourage scavenging birds. The city should continue to discourage fish wastes on the beach. The fish in bins and the wastes from fish processing on the Spit are ground up into very small particles and piped one-quarter mile offshore.
The “good-hearted” folks who set aside fish to feed eagles to make it through the winter are misguided. Overabundant crows, ravens and gulls also get some of the food meant for eagles, which are predators with no natural enemies. Artificially increasing eagle numbers by feeding has harmful effects on waterfowl, seabirds, cranes and other prey species as well as pets and poultry. Since 1979 when large-scale eagle feeding began on the Spit, winter counts of ravens and crows, both notorious egg thieves, have risen sharply along with eagles.
Mr. Vanderbrink’s analogy of eagles congregating with food provided on the Spit with the huge natural aggregation of eagles feeding on spawning salmon at the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve is not valid because the Spit is an industrial area not far from the Homer airport. Habituated eagles, ravens, crows and gulls are a known hazard to aircraft. A congregation of eagles and other scavengers/predators at a grounded whale carcass also is not analogous with sustained artificial feeding on the Spit or elsewhere. Scavengers at the remains of a moose or a marine mammal are present only a few days and then leave.
The author’s contention that feeding more “fish to the eagles and less to gulls would relieve some of the pressure the shorebirds endure” is without merit. Most shorebird species that stop over in Mud Bay and vicinity are enroute to tundra breeding areas elsewhere. Also, except for some harassment, shorebirds nearly always fly too fast to be at risk.
However, increasing numbers of gulls, eagles, crows and ravens, because of anthropogenic food availability on the Spit, landfill and certain other places do prey on other birds, especially eggs and chicks. More fish provided to eagles results in more eagles, gulls and other scavengers.
Regarding the loss of reportedly more than 100 pairs of eiders which nested on the Spit 50 years ago, regrettably this is irreversible because of land subsidence caused by the 1964 earthquake and development of remaining nesting habitat.
Lastly, Mr. Vanderbrink believes that if it’s bad to feed eagles then it’s equally detrimental to feed gulls, crows and songbirds. He is right about the gulls and crows, but there is a tremendous difference in the ecological effects of feeding 10-pound predatory eagles and 0.35-ounce chickadees.
Edgar Bailey is a longtime Homer resident and conservationist.
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