If you stay at the Sea Raven motel in Queen Charlotte City, you will almost undoubtedly hear the stattacco keening of a bald eagle before you go to sleep, and it will also likely be the first thing you hear after you wake up.

"That's an eagle," one employee told me when he saw me scanning the treeline. I knew that, I replied, but I was trying to place the eagle's location. I then mischeviously suggested that his tone suggested he was sick of hearing eagles. He smiled mirthlessly.

The two in the pictures below (they were about 15 to 20 metres apart) were hanging out by the fish processing plant on the waters of Skidegate inlet. Eagles are almost considered to be predatory pigeons by people around Queen Charlotte City and Skidegate. They have been known to snatch chickens and ducks, but they love nothing more than an easy meal of fish guts.

The two below were sitting in a tree outside a fishing lodge on Delkatla Street in not-so-beautiful downtown Masset (virtually all the lodges and a bed-and-breakfast or two are on Delkatla, which is right beside the dock for the fishing boats):

The eagle at the lower right "took a huge shit" before flying off, in the words of one American guest at the lodge. "He's your national bird, not ours," I offered. "Yeah? Well now our national bird is gonna go kill your national bird," he shot back.

By that, I think he meant a raven. The loon is our national bird. :) Here's a couple ravens hanging out just north of the Masset harbour:

Incidentally, the two main Haida clans are Ravens and Eagles.

This view has a golden eagle chilling in front of the boats:

Here's another bald eagle hanging out while a second swoops by:

The fellow on the post is about to move on in this image:

But he should have thought about it: Pole space is at a premium come sunset in Masset:

And if you don't find a pole, you end up like these two -- living in the eagle equivalent of a van by the river:

The area above is known as the Delkatla tidal estuary, and during migration season, it's crucially important habit for birds using the Pacific flyway. Here's some stuff about the Delkatla Wildlife Sanctuary.