If you need to buy a gift for someone, there’s a newly-published little book that just about anyone would love. It’s called The Eagle Lady by Cary Anderson. This book would be worth owning just for its beautiful photos of Alaska, including a stunning one of bright green-and-white Aurora Borealis lights in the night sky, but the real gist of the book is an absorbing pictorial documentation of the saga of Jean Keene.

Jean is an 80-year-old woman who lives in Homer and has made it her winter-time occupation to feed eagles. Every day, she puts out barrels upon barrels of fish parts, and the eagles flock in, over 200 a day. There are many amazing shots showing hordes of eagles standing and perching around, waiting to be fed, with the blue water and snow-capped mountains in the background. There are pictures of eagles flying, eating, nesting, and feeding babies; every picture in the book was clearly shot with both skill and artistry.

This is a lovely little book, and at a reasonable price ($15.95). You can get it from Eagle Eye Pictures, PO Box 241392, Anchorage, AK 99524. I highly recommend it.

Mixed Breeds - In National Geographic Magazine 
Photograph by Norbert Rosing

Among birds of a feather only one—the eagle on top—has real plumage. The others are artificial residents of Jean Keene’s backyard in Homer. Each winter for 23 years, Keene, now 78 and known as the “Eagle Lady,” has fed the eagles fish scraps and other donated food, including the occasional roadkill. “I’m a great lover of birds and everything in nature—and I hate to see anything go to waste.”