PORT TOWNSEND — Every morning for the past seven years, Bob Capener has put on his jacket and cap, picked up his binoculars and driven the half mile from his home to Fort Worden State Park to watch the resident eagles.
But Capener is different from other birdwatchers who strive for a glimpse of the majestic birds soaring over the bluffs. The eagles are watching for him.
“I know these two, and they know me,” Capener said. “I have a kind of dog whistle that I blow when I approach to let them know I’m coming. They answer back . . . or at least I think they do.”
Capener is a volunteer for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife whose assignment is to monitor the five pairs of eagles who nest in the Port Townsend area.
One pair lives at Old Fort Townsend State Park. Three others are on private land, one on Sims Hill near Manresa Castle, the others are west of town at McCurdy Point and on Porter Lane.
Capener is on a first-name basis with all his eagles he watches — he calls the Manresa pair Manny and Castle — but the pair he knows best are Kai and Tai, who have raised their young at Fort Worden State Park since 1997.
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