The Alaska Bald Eagle Festival will again draw raptor enthusiasts to Haines this November, following a two-year break because of covid.
“Everyone wants to get out and get moving,” American Bald Eagle Foundation executive director Cheryl McRoberts said. “A lot of our regulars who come every year had been asking (if we were) going to do it.”
The foundation canceled its 2020 festival altogether and developed some virtual programming last year in lieu of an in-person celebration. “We didn’t feel safe asking people to travel to town,” Bald Eagle Foundation education manager Ali Gustavson said.
McRoberts said the festival, which will run Nov. 9-12, usually raises between $12,000 and $15,000 for the foundation. She said they always hope for around 300 attendees, but the true number is generally closer to 200 because of lodging shortages.
Although the in-person festival was canceled for two years, visitors including billionaire businessman David Rubenstein still came for the eagles last November.
The Chilkat Valley is home to one of North America’s densest congregations of bald eagles – numbering in the thousands in strong years as they follow a late chum salmon run.
An upwelling of warm groundwater where the Tsirku River joins the Chilkat River delays freezing and draws the fish to spawn long after most other rivers have frozen over, creating a precious winter food source for the eagles.
The densest cluster of birds — and a favorite place for visiting photographers to shoot — can be seen from the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve between 19 and 21 Mile Haines Highway.
The winter chum run was abysmal in 2020 — biologists aren’t sure why — and far fewer eagles showed up. But bird numbers rebounded last fall.
In structure and programming, this year’s festival will mostly resemble the 2019 gathering. Speakers from the community will discuss the Chilkat Valley’s unique geology and late salmon run, which are what cause the eagles to congregate here in the fall.
Foundation staff will offer several “bald eagle chats” throughout the weekend, and – new this year – a guided walk on the preserve. A banquet with a raffle will close out the weekend.
Two events from past years – the release of a rehabilitated eagle into the wild, and a collaboration with the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center in Klukwan – have not yet been finalized, but McRoberts said she hopes both can be included in this year’s festivities.
This will be the foundation’s 26th Bald Eagle Festival. Gustavson said many of the guests have been attending the festival for 10 years or more.
The Haines Visitor Center does not collect information about the economic impact of the festival on local businesses. The Cordova Chamber of Commerce estimated that its Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival – which drew about 120 attendees – generated $173,030 in local spending this spring.
Birder and columnist Al Batt will be coming to Haines from Minnesota for the festival, which he has attended since the early 2000s. He said he believed suspending the festival for the past few years was “wise.”
Batt said he has observed festival attendees “come from far away, but it’s a lot of the same people, because it’s addictive. You try not to go but you can’t help it. We should have a name for these people, maybe Haines-oholics.”