Soaring eagle numbers at this year’s Eagle Watch (22 photos)

Attitudes towards bald eagles that once led to killing and nest destruction, have been replaced by awe and excitement watching them.

This change in attitude has helped the eagle population make a remarkable recovery in Nova Scotia.

You only have to attend the Sheffield Mills Eagle Watch festival – when crowds gather to watch bald eagles eat chicken carcasses – to understand the public’s appreciation for the majestic birds.

Held the last weekend in January and first weekend in February, this year marked the 28th winter the event was held and it attracted thousands of visitors from throughout Nova Scotia, out of province and even out of country.

The Blomidon Naturalists Society works with the Sheffield Mills community to educate people who watch eagles in the area.

“While there hasn’t been an official count, I know one man who saw 300 eagles just in one spot,” said Howard Williams with the society. “It would not surprise me if there is 500 this year.”

Williams says the population was down to frightening numbers in the mid-1900s because of threats like the insecticide DDT and fear from the public.

He says the tradition of feeding the eagles poultry casualties goes back a few decades when a farmer wondered if he could help enhance their population.

“By feeding them in the winter you are giving them a better chance of surviving. And if they do that they are more likely to breed,” Williams said.

Bald eagle numbers have shot up, which could have them facing a new threat.

“It shouldn’t be made too big because if the population continues to grow there will be too much competition for nesting sites and natural food sources,” he said. “No one is denying it has been a good thing, but one shouldn’t take it too far.”

The society estimates only about 50 of the raptors are year-round residents in the valley.

“The ones that stay are already nesting in some places, the rest go north, so they go into other parts of mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton,” he said. “And they can go even further to Newfoundland and Labrador.”

He says the eagles come to the area because of the more mild climate and the food source.

“This is a kind of sponge in winter and releases it in the summer months,” he said.

Malcolm Lake is the VP of the Sheffield Mills Community Association. He is also one of the poultry farmers in the region who feeds the eagles twice a day.

“This year I started feeding them the 28th of December,” he said. “There are other people in the area feeding the eagles but we go based on the snow conditions so usually by the beginning of March most of the eagles have gone back to their homeground.”

The Sheffield Mills Community Hall hosts a pancake breakfast all four weekend mornings of the Eagle Watch that includes local grub like sausages from the Canning Meat Market and pancakes smothered in maple syrup and a delicious blueberry sauce.

“The pancake breakfast raises money for our community hall which is a historic building, it’s the old school house for Sheffield Mills, and is now in our possession,” he said.

Lake says the Eagle Watch is the association's main fundraiser for the upkeep of the community hall, and it also helps bring the rural community together.

“There are probably about 100 volunteers who work at the Eagle Watch, at the feeding site or in the kitchen, so it brings the community together and is almost a social occasion for us even though everyone is working hard,” he said.