Joe Kline / The BulletinA golden eagle sits on a perch while on display outside the Sunriver Nature Center tent during Eagle Watch 2014 at Round Butte Overlook Park outside Madras.

Educational booths, craft-making and guided bird-watching for all ages was available over the weekend at the 19th annual Eagle Watch event at Round Butte Overlook Park near Culver.

There are 10 resident pairs each of bald eagles and golden eagles in the area around Lake Billy Chinook, according to Paul Patton, a regional resource specialist with Oregon Parks and Recreation who’s been planning and hosting the event for 19 years. Between January and March the resident pairs — eagles that stay in the area year-round — are joined by migratory eagles from as far away as Alaska.

“You can come out here any time and see eagles, but there are even more this time of year,” Patton said. “They like the canyons because of the thermal winds, and the lake resource is a very attractive food source.”

The event is put on by the Oregon Eagle Foundation, Portland General Electric, The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and other community partners in an effort to teach people about eagles.

There were several powerful viewing scopes set up on the canyon rim with guides available to focus the equipment and help viewers know where to look. They even provided ladders so the smallest viewers could scope out eagles and other birds perched on the rocky canyon walls.

People were encouraged to start their visit at “Eagle Village,” where organizations such as the Museum at Warm Springs, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the East Cascades Audubon Society, to name just a few, had tents set up with educational activities and information available.

“When we expose kids and their parents to birding, they learn to love the environment and conservation,” said Mary Yanalcanlin with the East Cascades Audobon Society.

Kids were invited to play games in the Oregon State Parks tent. They picked up fish out of pools of water with their “talons” and pulled worms out of a tree with their “beaks.” There was a free hot dog lunch at noon, and kids could make and take home their very own wooden birdhouses.

Employees from the Sunriver Nature Center brought “Aquila,” a nearly 30-year-old blind golden eagle. Many years ago Aquila was hit by a car near Christmas Valley. The impact detached her retinas, and she’s been in captivity ever since, said Jennifer Curtis.

Aquila sat on a perch outside the nature center’s tent. Inside were a great horned owl and a barn owl. The great horned owl suffered a traumatic brain injury that means he can no longer live in the wild. The barn owl suffered a wing injury that’s since healed but seems to like life at the nature center.

“The story I’ve heard is that they tried to let him go a couple times, and he keeps coming back,” Curtis said. “He knows this is where the food is.”

Sarah Kissinger, 10, was at Eagle Watch with her family from Redmond. She was putting the final touches on her birdhouse with a little help from her dad, Lee Kissinger. Sarah said she’d made birdhouses from kits before, but she was struggling with getting the last nail in the roof of this one just right.

“She’s doing a better job than I would have,” said her mom, Sherri Kissinger. “I was trying to help my son at the other end of the table and just about nailed the door shut before he told me to stop.”

Thad Fitzhenry, a biologist who works for PGE, spent the weekend educating attendees about a five-year study PGE is doing in the area to determine how bald and golden eagles use the habitat. He said a trapper with ODFW worked with PGE to trap nine eagles and outfit each with a tracking device. The biologists then studied where those eagles spent most of their time.

“We always thought they stayed here and didn’t migrate, but weren’t sure until the study,” he said. “This is an indication of high habitat quality and favorable food and weather conditions.”

He said the researchers participating in the study also believe they’ve found another set of resident bald eagles in the area, bringing the total to 11 pairs.

The study will end next year, and official results will be published in 2016, Fitzhenry said.

At 2 p.m., members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs put on a cultural program complete with traditional tribal dancing to end the event.

“The presentation from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is a dramatic grand finale to the weekend,” Patton said.

— Reporter: 541-383-0376, sking@bendbulletin.com