Thursday, March 27, 2014

Fighting the Eagles...at the Transfer Station



I have always associated bald eagles with beauty, strength and freedom, but delivering my trash to the transfer station recently I got a different perspective.  As I pulled up I noticed 10-15 eagles standing, hopping, eating and swooping around inside the transfer station where I needed to drop my trash. Being so close to these birds, I appreciated those vicious, curved beaks and I had no desire to get too close to them.

I backed in like always and cautiously got out, watching overhead. I heard about an eagle swooping close to someone's head in there.  I opened up my vehicle, tossed my bags out, got out my phone and took pictures and all the while the eagles virtually ignored me. With the rabbit population plummeting they are hungry, and trash is food, so they're looking for a meal.

People up here seem quite attuned to how life is different here than elsewhere, with comments like, "That's so Alaska" or "That's so Homer" being fairly common. Well, this was one of those situations that I thought to myself, "This is so Alaska," and thought it blogworthy in my otherwise fairly uneventful hum-drum life during the schoolyear.

So if you're visiting Homer and want to see eagles, you'll pass the Shell gas station as you're coming to the top of the Baycrest Hill.  Make a left right past the gas station and drive up to the trash disposal building and you may see a few (or a lot!) of eagles.

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