A series of recent eagle attacks has left Alaskans confused as to why the majestic birds are going after people.
In Kodiak, Alaska, eagles have struck at least three locals who then required stitches, according to a Facebook post shared by officials with the City of Kodiak Port & Harbors Department.
The incidents took place at St. Herman’s Boat Harbor, also known as Dog Bay.
BALD EAGLE SWIPES LUNCH TO GO AS CONNECTICUT NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER SNAPS PICTURE: ‘AMERICA’S BIRD LIKES PIZZA’
David Johnson, harbormaster and port director, told Fox News Digital that it’s not yet known why the eagles are attacking, but there is a large nest with at least one chick nearby.
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St. Herman’s dock is located in Kodiak, Alaska and has 27,000 sq. ft. monolithic concrete floating docks.(Silver Prout)
“We are advising harbor users in the area to exercise caution, and avoid the area if possible. Our harbor staff have taken to holding something above their heads when they’re near the nest,” Johnson said.
“The eagles are still behaving aggressively, but with the increased awareness, it seems the number of successful attacks has decreased from last week. I don’t know what has these particular freedom chickens so upset, but hopefully they get over it soon,” Johnson added.
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David Johnson, Harbormaster and Port Director, told Fox News Digital they don’t know why the eagles are attacking, but they do know there is a large nest with at least one chick nearby. (Silver Prout)
Longtime Kodiak resident and Bering Sea crab fisherman, Captain Bill Prout said he was attacked by a bald eagle in August 2022 while walking on the same dock.
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“I’ve walked these docks for over 40 years and never expected to be attacked by a Bald Eagle – a majestic symbol of our freedom,” Prout told Fox News Digital in an emailed statement, adding, “it felt like someone took a 2×4 to the back of my neck.”
Prout said he contemplated going to the emergency room, but his wife came to the rescue, wiping down his open wounds with antiseptic.
“The eagle population has increased while their food source has decreased, which could lead to us seeing more attacks,” Prout said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the Audubon Society for comment.
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Captain Bill Prout, a Kodiak resident, was attacked by a bald eagle in 2022 while walking on the same dock.(Silver Prout)
Steve Lewis, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) biologist with a focus on eagles and raptors, told local Alaska radio station KMXT that these attacks are considered “strange” for the Kodiak area.
“Lewis recommends anyone walking in the area of St. Herman Harbor should hold something above their heads to protect themselves, or continue to watch the birds so that they won’t swoop down and attack other people,” the station reported.
Lewis told KMXT that holding an umbrella or a hat above your head could help protect you against injuries, since eagles tend to attack “the highest point of a person that is visible to them.”
If you encounter an aggressive eagle in Kodiak, contact the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge headquarters.
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The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States.
The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act federally prohibits the harm, possession or disturbance of bald and golden eagles, according to the FWS.
Incoming Utah State cornerback Andre Seldon Jr. died Saturday in an apparent cliff-diving accident at a reservoir about 20 miles from the school’s campus, the university said in a statement.
Deputies were called to the Porcupine Reservoir at around 2:20 p.m. MT following reports that a man dove from the cliffs into the water and didn’t resurface, the Cache County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Search and rescue teams with divers then began searching for the man, the agency’s release said, and his body was found in the reservoir at 9:05 p.m. by the Utah Department of Public Safety dive team.
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“Our initial investigation leads us to believe this is a tragic accident as multiple witnesses recount the same information,” the sheriff’s office said.
The university identified the victim as Seldon, 22, who was joining the football team this year after two seasons at New Mexico State University and two at the University of Michigan.
“Our football program is heartbroken to have to endure the loss of one of our own,” said Utah State interim Head Coach Nate Dreiling, who had joined the program after serving as New Mexico State’s defensive coordinator for two seasons.
Seldon, who played all 15 New Mexico State games in 2023, transferred into the football program over the summer and was set to start classes this fall, according to the university.
“Having had a previous relationship with Andre during our time together at New Mexico State, I can tell you he was an incredible person and teammate,” Dreiling said. “Our condolences and prayers go out to Andre’s family as we grieve with them over this tremendous loss.”
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Seldon is survived by his parents, Danielle Smith and Andre Seldon Sr.
“Utah State is working to ensure both Athletics staff and student-athletes have emotional and mental support as they process and grieve,” university officials said.
It’s been more than a little clear, during the long weeks of hand-wringing about President Biden’s age and his ability to win, that there was another concern: The ability of Vice President Harris to step into his shoes.
Sometimes, it was said out loud. Sometimes, it was left unsaid. But it was always obvious in the ways some folks were promoting a makeshift August primary with little or no mention of the vice president. That scenario would mean that the person specifically who had been chosen to stand in for Biden in case of emergency could be knocked out to create an entirely new ticket.
Let me point out something that should be obvious: The Democratic Party, which relies on Black women as its most reliable voters, would be underestimating how they will react if such disregard is shown to the first Black female vice president.
I don’t know how Democrats will try to explain that leapfrog move, but it will take some high-level, hat-in-hand, verbal voodoo to ease the pain and anger that a lot of Black voters will justifiably feel. “The party elites would be committing suicide,” said Cornell Belcher, a pollster political analyst who worked for both Obama campaigns.
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This question should have been a settled years ago, when Biden picked Harris as his running mate — and a majority of Americans voted to elect them as a team. Yes, Harris had a tough first year finding her voice, her footing and a team that best supports her leadership. But it is evident that Harris has found her stride, especially since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, as she has traversed the country trumpeting the long-term effects of that ruling. She has been steadfast in the weeks since Biden’s troubling debate performance last month. She knows she has been in the spotlight, quietly auditioning for a job that her boss was, until Sunday, determined to hold on to. Let’s just concede that walking that tightrope was not easy.
The pundit class and cable-news armies are salivating over the prospect of an open primary that would now drive ratings. Democrats pushing for an open primary claim the contest would boost voter engagement and also avoid the appearance of a coronation after Biden’s endorsement of Harris on Sunday. Plus, there simply isn’t time for that exercise.
But it is long past time to stop underestimating what Harris can do for a party that is in a ditch, thanks to this overlong Shakespearean drama about Biden’s acuity. She has strong support among Democrats, has muscled up on foreign and domestic issues in a manner few can because of her unique perch, not to mention daily access to classified briefings and her experience serving on key Senate committees.
And many of the things that were once points of criticism move into the plus column. Some progressives have called Harris a “cop” because of her background as a prosecutor. She was attorney general of the most-populous state, and, in this presidential match up, a litigator could bring special skills running against a felon who is still facing a mountain of legal charges and is backed by an army of conservatives who want to erode or erase our constitutional rights.
The criticism of her easy laugh — even her smile — are the stuff of high school taunts, and yet a youthful candidate who brings joy and light to the campaign trail while taking on heavy issues will appeal to voters who are yearning for optimism after a long period of turbulence. Her multicultural background and marriage allow her to build a narrative around change while facing opponents whose retrograde MAGA political messaging would take America backward.
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I know some people will say I am arguing that the Black vice president should automatically get the job to avoid upsetting voters of color. Let me set that straight: The perceived insult is but one factor. A vice president who has performed admirably should get top consideration for the post because stepping up in case of emergency is the central part of the job. And many of the people who would likely be offended if she is passed over have a deep gut hunch that a White man would not be so easily dismissed.
At a time when reproductive rights are such a linchpin issue for female voters, the potential for treating Harris with disregard seems particularly reckless. Doubts about the vice president’s ability to ascend to the top jabs at a deep-tissue wound that throbs inside so many American women who have to work twice as hard and be over-credentialed before being even considered for a role they can clearly handle.
It’s one reason women over-index in measures of achievement in college and yet are grossly underrepresented in top corporate leadership. Women CEOs run barely 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies. It’s why people so often look past gleaming résumés and oodles of experience to float questions about whether a woman is really the right fit. It’s why so many people mask their own stubborn consternation about female authority by asking whether others will accept a woman in a top job.
Will voters accept her? Don’t forget that people (including a lot of Black voters) initially asked the same question about Barack Obama. And yes, voters asked that question about Hillary Clinton, as well. But let’s also remember that, not long ago, people questioned whether women could handle their own credit card or be trusted to vote.
If the Democrats opt for an open primary, I hope they have some muscular messaging to explain why they swerved from succession protocol. Otherwise, they are not just underestimating Harris, they are also underestimating a voting bloc that holds the key to their victory.
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What do you think President Biden should do with the rest of his time in office? Share your responses with us, and they may be published in The Post.
Some have described the call of a pinyon jay as laughter across the landscape, but the predicament of the noisy, gregarious jay is no joke, as it is one of the most rapidly disappearing birds in the West.
The pinyon jay has been identified as a species of greatest conservation need in Wyoming wildlife action plans across its range after seeing its population crater by 80% in the last half-century.
It was proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act in 2022, and in August 2023 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service completed a 90-day review of this petition and announced that a full 12-month review of the species’ status was warranted.
To help improve the bird’s chance of survival, two studies are underway in Wyoming.
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“They’re just awesome birds and hopefully we do them right,” said Eric Atkinson, associate professor of biology at Northwest College in Powell, who is part of one of the studies. “Zach Wallace with Wyoming Game and Fish told me several months ago, ‘You know, this is one of those species that caught us all kind of flat-footed because we knew they were there, but nobody really showed a lot of strong concern about them. And when you look at the numbers, their precipitous decline, it’s about time that some of us look at it.’”
The Draper Natural History Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, along with research collaborators from the Bureau of Land Management, NWC, USFWS and the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology at the University of California-Davis began focusing on the birds in the Bighorn Basin this spring.
Meanwhile Wallace, a nongame biologist, and others in Game and Fish are conducting field research in several counties to learn more basic information on the ecology and management of pinyon jays to understand how the agency can better manage the species in Wyoming.
“Our main goal is to be able to provide timely information on the status and management needs of this species as the federal listing process proceeds,” Wallace said. “Most research available on pinyon jays is from the southwestern U.S., so it is very important for us to understand if and how that information applies in Wyoming. Regardless of whether the pinyon jay is listed, our management of this species into the future will benefit from the results of this research.”
‘You Hear Them Before You See Them’
About the size of an American robin, the pinyon jay travels in large, noisy flocks throughout pinyon-juniper and other woodlands in the western United States. This strong-flying jay gives a crowlike kaw to keep in touch with the group.
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Flocks stick together year-round, breeding and foraging together in colonies that can range in size from a dozen to hundreds of individuals.
“You usually hear them before you see them, but don’t be misled; sometimes they can be amazingly quiet and you don’t even know that they’re present,” Atkinson said. “They’re kind of jokesters. One of the common names people use to apply to it is the blue crow. It does indeed look like a small blue crow. They act like it, they walk like it. Their faces are kind of crow-like.”
The bird is understudied and poorly known in most areas of its range, but data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey suggest that numbers have decreased survey-wide by 3.69% per year from 1967-2015, with an overall population loss of approximately 83.5%. Populations are predicted to be reduced by an additional 50% from 2016-2035.
Pinyon jay are found in the western United States mainly in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, central and northwest Wyoming and southeast Montana. And while there have been studies in other states, none had been done in Wyoming until these began.
“We know nothing about them really in the state of Wyoming,” said Jason Riggio, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology at the University of California-Davis, who is part of the Draper study.
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Co-Principal Investigators Eric Atkinson (left) and Jason Riggio attach a store-on-board GPS tag to the bird. Store-on-board units are set to record locations every six hours. The team needs to recapture the pinyon jay in order to retrieve the data. (Draper Natural History Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West)
The pinyon jay has been identified as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need in state wildlife action plans across its range after having undergone an 80 percent decline in population in the last half-century. (Photo by Kathy Lichtendahl)
The noisy, gregarious pinyon jay breed and forage together in colonies that can range in size from a dozen to hundreds of individuals. (Photo by Kathy Lichtendahl)
Are The Birds Breeding?
Wyoming Game and Fish, including Wallace and fellow nongame biologist Frank Stetler, who are based out of Lander, began studying the bird last year to try and determine its breeding status in the state.
Other goals of their study are to identify habitats selected during the breeding season specific to Wyoming, as well as important areas for habitat conservation. They also plan further monitoring to see if birds return to the same breeding sites.
“We have many questions about pinyon jays in Wyoming, but for a species that we know so little about, it makes sense to start with the basic ones first: distribution (i.e., where are they?), habitat (i.e., why are they there?) and status (i.e., how are they doing?),” Wallace said.
During the breeding season from May to July, the pinyon jay can be found in southern Park County, southern and eastern Natrona County, northern Washakie County, southern Hot Springs County, southern Fremont County and southern Sweetwater County.
Habitats available to the bird in Wyoming differ from the core of their distribution because the state is near the northeastern edge of the species’ breeding range.
Recent studies in Colorado have shown pinyon jay to nest in juniper trees 75% of the time. Because juniper removal is a common habitat treatment for other species including greater sage-grouse habitat improvement, Game and Fish is trying to determine if pinyon jays nest in juniper woodlands.
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“The Pinyon Pine tree that the species is named for barely occurs in our state, but Pinyon Jays occur in many areas of Wyoming,” Wallace said. “We are focused on understanding where jays occur and breed in the state and what kinds of habitat they are using. We are getting at that with a combination of observational surveys and tracking with satellite GPS transmitters.”
They began their research in April 2023, visiting 14 survey areas in the different counties two to three times throughout the season. Jays were detected at three of the 14 sites. Birds were observed a second time at each of these three sites in subsequent visits, two in Fremont County and one in Sweetwater County.
“We confirmed breeding at one of the 14 sites with approximately 35 birds present,” Stetler writes as part of the Nongame Section of the Annual Completion Report. “We confirmed breeding by observations of begging fledglings and recorded piping rattle calls, but were not able to determine the location of the colony site.”
The evidence of breeding was detected on June 11, 2023, in Fremont County. While no nests were located, the distance from closest known colony sites, presence of fledglings and observed behavior confirmed reproduction.
“We were pleased that our work last year documented the first record of breeding for pinyon jay in Wyoming,” Wallace said. “We had assumed they bred in the state, but it had never officially been documented.”
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Coexisting With Greater Sage-Grouse
The Draper Museum of Natural History and its research collaborators began its study in the Bighorn Basin during the spring after being awarded $150,000 in funding earlier this year from the BLM.
Atkinson and Riggio are Co-Principal Investigators, along with Draper Natural History Museum Curator Corey Anco, wildlife biologist Destin Harrell of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and wildlife biologist Abel Guevara with the BLM Cody Field Office.
The study proposes to characterize habitat use by pinyon jays across limber pine-juniper stands and compare pinyon jay movement with greater sage-grouse foraging and breeding areas.
“With the new modern GPS transmitters and data loggers, we can accurately determine what components of the available habitat are most important to the species and then we can do our best to try to provide for pinyon jay habitat needs while at the same time finding areas where conifer encroachment into sage-grouse habitat is negatively affecting sage-grouse,” Harrell said. “It’s a dynamic balance of not competing habitat types, but two habitat types existing together with some common ground. What we do with this common ground, is a question we are looking to gain more awareness.”
BLM lands play a central role in the pinyon jay’s habitat in northwestern Wyoming. At the start of the project, Guevara said that “successful pinyon jay conservation efforts rely on the thoughtful integration of public and private land needs.”
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“This project is important to find the right balance of vegetation treatments that would benefit both greater sage-grouse and pinyon jays,” he added recently. “Once areas of pinyon jay habitat are delineated, it will help us determine if a future project will be beneficial for pinyon jays or sage-grouse or both.”
The group is studying at a variety of sites around the western Bighorn Basin where the limber pine woodlands intersect with grasslands including near Meeteetse, the North Fork and South Fork of the Shoshone River outside Cody, near Clark and in the Oregon Basin.
So far, the group has had good success capturing the birds. As of early July they’d captured 64 and attached 19 GPS loggers and seven satellite transmitters.
“Those movement tags are critical to this study because right now, we don’t know where these birds are roosting, where they nest, where they forage and how far they traveled between those sites,” Anco said. “And we need that information because we can’t address how large of an area these birds need if we don’t know how far they’re traveling between areas.”
The birds are weighed and measured to determine if there’s a morphological difference between pinyon jays at the northern part of the range where they’re using limber pine juniper habitats versus the pinyon pine habitats. They’re also tested for different diseases and parasites such as avian malaria and West Nile virus.
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“So every bird that we have in hand we’re just trying to get as much information as we can,” Riggio said. “Is there a disease issue in the population that’s causing decline? Are they genetically and morphologically distinct in this northern part of the range where they have a really unique habitat versus the southern part of the range? And then also can we get some movement data to see how and where they’re using the landscape around here?”
Co-Principal Investigator Destin Harrell, left, attaches a GPS tag to an adult pinyon jay held by Co-Principal Investigator Eric Atkinson. Various vials for blood and West Nile Virus samples are shown on the table below. (Draper Natural History Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West)
Juvenile pinyon Jays can be identified by their lighter, dusky blue color, shorter beaks, and characteristic pink gape in the corners of their mouth. (Draper Natural History Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West)
When pinyon jays are observed as a survey site, the team searches the surrounding vegetation to look for evidence of nesting activity. Pinyon jays nest in colonies so if one nest is found they would expect to locate more. (Draper Natural History Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West)
Some of the captured birds have colored bands placed on their legs. Bird banding is one of the only ways researchers identify individual birds of the same species. (Draper Natural History Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West)
Researchers believe that pinyon jays are using the limber pine-juniper woodlands as its primary habitat in Wyoming. (Draper Natural History Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West)
Keep An Eye Out
Citizen scientists are encouraged to participate in this project by monitoring backyard bird feeders and documenting observations of pinyon jays in the wild. Datasheets are available to track observations by emailing DNHMSampling@centerofthewest.org.
“The partnership with landowners who provide the trapping locations is amazing to see,” Harrell said. “People love their birds and provide seed for the birds they enjoy watching and have around. It is a wonderful setting to give back to the pinyon jay for all the joy they bring.”
Both the Draper group and Game and Fish are sharing information with the Pinyon Jay Working Group, which was formed in 2017 with a goal of bringing together pinyon jay experts to discuss conservation needs of the species. The large, diverse partnership plans to develop a range-wide conservation strategy for the species.
“We are already in discussions with Scott Somershoe, who is a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and chair of the group,” Anco said. “He’s tasked with gathering and compiling all of the data for this species status assessment. So we’re working with Scott to provide as much useful information for that as possible.”
As their study progresses, Game and Fish biologists are continuing to do landscape-level surveys to understand exactly where pinyon jays occur in Wyoming and locate more breeding colonies. It was also a pilot year for marking birds with GPS transmitters, which will allow them to better understand the species’ habitat requirements, space use and seasonal movements.
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“This year we documented breeding in another location in central Wyoming and tagged four birds with transmitters,” Wallace said. “We are currently doing on-the-ground surveys in the areas with tagged birds to understand how they are using habitat.”
Meanwhile, Draper study will extend to the eastern side of the Bighorn Basin in the upcoming year. They also hope to document breeding and roosting areas. Anco said ideally this will become a longitudinal study.
“We are not putting a cap on it,” he said. “I would like to see this study persist as long as I’m the curator at the Draper Natural History Museum.”
