> 



Sr- 



1^ 



V 



Until they begin to hibernate in late De- 

 cember, bears are active fishers of salmon, 

 and the resident foxes, wolverines, otters, 

 and even shrews take advantage of the 

 spawning frenzy. 



Thousands of birds of various species 

 are also able to remain all winter because 

 the lake is ice-free. Gulls feed on decom- 

 posed salmon carcasses and caviar; com- 

 mon goldeneye ducks and mallards gather 

 dead eggs from the bottom of the 

 lakeshore; mergansers capture young 

 smolts (salmon hatchlings); and swans and 

 mergansers dig up salmon nests and de- 

 vour the eggs. Even perching birds not 



usually associated with fish, such as wood- 

 peckers and willow tits, can be seen mak- 

 ing a meal of washed-up remains of 

 salmon and eggs. Crows, ravens, golden 

 eagles, and white-tailed eagles also vie for 

 a living on the lake — scavenging car- 

 casses and pirating fish from other birds. 



The most impressive of the birds that 

 take advantage of this winter bounty, and 

 the subject that I have studied for more 

 than ten years, is the Steller's sea eagle. 

 True fishing eagles, closely related to 

 North American bald eagles, these birds 

 are named after Georg Steller, the eight- 

 eenth-century Russian naturalist who ex- 



plored Kamchatka, Alaska, and the Aleut- 

 ian Islands. Steller's sea eagles are charac- 

 terized by their bright white foreheads, 

 shoulders, and tails, which contrast with 

 their brownish black bodies. Their beaks 

 are massive, deep, and strongly arched. 

 But the most remarkable aspect of these 

 eagles is their size; Steller's sea eagles can 

 weigh up to twenty pounds, about twice as 

 much as a bald eagle, and can have a 

 wingspan of some seven feet. Also known 

 as the white-shouldered eagle, this bird 

 breeds only in Russia; of the total world 

 population of 4,200 breeding pairs, 1,200 

 pairs nest on the Kamchatka Peninsula. In 



28 Natural History 2/94 



