Other Voices

Bill Combs Jr., a nature photographer based in Cobleskill, talks about bald eagles he has photographed as if they were family. He helped create the Schoharie County Eagle Trail (online at SCEagleTrail.com) and spends hours every day observing the birds — sometimes as he and his wife sit on their porch at home, other times as he visits their favorite haunts. In the early 1970s, New York State had just one nesting pair left but, after the ban of DDT and other protective measures, the state now has 400 active nest sights. Eagles mate for life and Combs first observed a pair in 2016 in a tree “near Walmart of all places,” he says in this week’s podcast. He’s been watching them ever since. It is illegal for anyone but Native Americans to own an eagle feather so, when Combs has seen one fall from a preening eagle, he contacted a Native American professor who has a permit and uses the feathers for a ceremonial war headdress. “Their only purpose,” Combs said of eagles, “is to raise their young … like we do with our children.” He also said, “They were here first, before us … We need to be respectful.”

— Photo from Bill Combs Jr., Combs Wildlife Photography