Jean Keene - Feeding The Eagles

Feeding The Eagles

Keene's career as the "Eagle Lady" began shortly after her arrival in Homer, when one morning she noticed two bald eagles on the beach near her motorhome. Keene saw offering food to the eagles as a natural extension of her practice of keeping bird feeders filled with sunflower seeds for wild songbirds. She began to bring home surplus fish in a bucket from her job, and each morning would throw some fish to the eagles over the short driftwood fence she had made around her motorhome. By the end of that spring, a half-dozen eagles were showing up for breakfast. The eagles departed with the arrival of summer, when the Spit became more active with human visitors, but they returned in the winter when tourist season had ended, and Keene resumed the daily feeding.

Within ten years, over 200 bald eagles were visiting during winter and early spring each day, and the job of feeding them became more involved. To have enough fish to last through the winter, she would begin in August to stockpile fish scraps and freezer burned fish donated by her employer and by other local companies. The fish was sometimes supplemented by moose meat that Keene salvaged when she heard of a road-killed moose on the highway. She began feeding the eagles at about December 1 of each year, a job that took up to three hours' work each morning. Keene obtained permission from her employer to use a company forklift to move the large containers of stockpiled fish scraps and freezer-burned salmon, halibut, rockfish, cod, and herring out of the company's large freezers. She then transferred the fish by hand into barrels or garbage cans, which she loaded up in her pickup truck. Then she would drive the load to her motorhome, about 100 yards (91 m) from the Seward Fisheries plant, and cut the fish into fist-sized pieces to be thrown out to the eagles. If the fish was fully frozen, she would use an axe, chainsaw, or blowtorch to break the fish down into smaller chunks, or might even have to lug the large garbage cans into her motorhome to thaw. "I don't know if anyone else would do this," she told a reporter in 1986. "My motorhome smells like fish. My yard is fish. My truck is fish. I am fish. It gets kind of gross sometimes, especially when you're handling a lot of slimy carcasses."

Keene had been persistent in her efforts. In 1985 she broke her leg, but managed to keep to the feeding schedule even on crutches. In the winter of 1994 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and on her doctor's advice underwent a mastectomy. She hired a friend to conduct feeding operations in her absence, but was back to do it herself three days after surgery.

On July 1, 1998, an ammonia leak and explosion at the Seward Fisheries plant caused a fire that led to the evacuation of Homer Spit and the ultimate destruction of the facility, which until then had been the major supplier of fish remains for Keene's feeding operation. But Keene was able to report when winter came that she had found other sources and was ready for the eagles when they returned.

Although the number of visiting eagles fluctuated, about 200 to 300 eagles would show up each day during the months of winter and early spring. Crows and gulls were also attracted to the area. Keene fed them an estimated 500 pounds (227 kg) of fish per day, about 50,000 pounds (22,680 kg) per year. Her fish supply included surplus and freezer-burned fish from fish processing facilities still on the Spit, her own purchases using her limited funds from Social Security or retirement benefits, or fish contributed by her supporters. Visitors could come and watch the eagles Keene fed on the Spit at no cost, but were asked to stay in their cars for their own safety and for the safety of the eagles.