Bald eagles admired along North Crow Road
Megan Strickland
More than two dozen bald eagles of all ages flocked to a field along North Crow Road in Ronan last week, drawing onlookers to the rural farmland.
Megan Strickland
More than two dozen bald eagles of all ages flocked to a field along North Crow Road in Ronan last week, drawing onlookers to the rural farmland.
Megan Strickland
More than two dozen bald eagles of all ages flocked to a field along North Crow Road in Ronan last week, drawing onlookers to the rural farmland.
Megan Strickland
More than two dozen bald eagles of all ages flocked to a field along North Crow Road in Ronan last week, drawing onlookers to the rural farmland.
Megan Strickland
More than two dozen bald eagles of all ages flocked to a field along North Crow Road in Ronan last week, drawing onlookers to the rural farmland.
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RONAN — A couple dozen bald eagles mesmerized residents in the Ronan area last week, as they flocked together in a field just north of North Crow Clubhouse.
“It’s been amazing to watch them,” said Tim Browne, a resident who lives near the field and was one of many people to park across from the field and take photos.
According to Browne, the eagles had been in the field for about a week’s time by Thursday. The majestic group included different sexes and ages of birds. They arrived in the morning hours, but took off in the afternoon for an unknown location. The birds did not appear to have a food source in the field, Browne said.
It is not unusual to see eagles grouped together in Lake County pastures during mid-winter, according to Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Wildlife Manager Dale Becker.
“Usually what you see is when (cows) start calving, they gather to eat the afterbirth out in the winter pastures,” Becker said. “It’s just an amazing, dense mess of protein out there waiting for the picking. It’s not uncommon in a field during calving to see 10 or 15 birds.”
Calving usually begins in February, but any kind of food source could produce a flock of eagles, Becker said.
Unlike migratory birds that will continue on to southern parts of the United States or even South America for winter, eagles will stay in the area unless they are deprived of food and water sources, Outdoor Recreation Planner for the National Bison Range Pat Jamieson said.
“They are really food dependent,” Jamieson said.
If Flathead Lake and other rivers and streams freeze over it limits the birds’ access of fish and drinking water. If they cannot find another source of food, such as a carcass, eagles will migrate to where they can find food.
“With the Flathead River barely freezing, a lot of them stay,” Jamieson said of habitat at the National Bison Range. Visitors to the Range have seen many bald eagles living along Mission Creek this winter.
When February rolls around, those making a trip along Highway 212 will likely see more of the birds as calving begins.
“They will clean up on placenta,” Jamieson said.
