Kirsten Larsen
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 02/99) - It's official -- the first bald eagle of the season has landed in Yellowknife and has returned to its regular Northern nesting grounds.

Patricia Baldwin, a local bird watcher, was thrilled to see the eagle's return on March 27 and ran right out to Yellowknife's Canada Wildlife Service office to inform them of the sighting.

"I was talking to my mom on the phone and it (an eagle) went right by the window," said Baldwin. "I went right away with the kids and a neighbour and went down on the ice to watch it (up on the cliff) in the tree.

"I went to the (Canadian Wildlife office) to put my name on the list. Each year they post a list and people put their first sightings on it. I always go down and put it on the list. This year, I think I've got the first (sighting)."

Mike Fournier, wildlife technician with the service, said the sightings in their records are usually in early April, but there have been March sightings before.

"I looked back into our records and in '89 the first was March 30 and in '93 it was the 29th, so the 28th and 29th of March isn't uncommon," said Fournier. "Most of the sightings in our records are between the fifth to 12th of April. That isn't really an accurate indicator because RWED seems to get sightings sooner than us usually."

It's no coincidence that Baldwin spotted the eagle so quickly. Her home in Latham Island, has a perfect birds eye view overlooking one of the eagle's favourite hang-outs -- a fishing hole on Yellowknife Bay that has been attracting eagles and other birds for years.

"I leave the fish out there for them to eat," admitted Bob Turner who lives on the waterfront in N'dilo. "The eagles have been coming down there as long as I can remember. My dad did this for years before me."

Turner said he has only seen one eagle at his netting site so far this year and his sighting was even earlier than Baldwin's.

"This is the first eagle this year that I've noticed -- I saw it last Saturday," said Turner.

Bob's father, Jim Turner, whose home also backs onto the bay, keeps a close watch of the action going on around the fishing hole.

"I haven't seen him (the eagle) this morning but he was here for two days already and Bob was feeding him," said Jim Wednesday afternoon. "Yesterday he (the eagle) was sitting right close (to the fishing hole). I've seen 20 or 30 ravens over there and he (the eagle) will be sitting at the fish and the ravens will go up and grab his tail...The day before yesterday he got fed up with it and took a fish and flew away with it."