Thursday, March 28, 2024
39.0°F

Back to the birds

by Devin Weeks Staff Writer
| April 18, 2018 1:00 AM

photo

Eagles, hawks, owls, falcons and ospreys will be on display this Friday at Birds of Prey Northwest's "Fly Like an Eagle" program at The Coeur d'Alene Resort. The program starts at 4p.m. and goes to 7 p.m. with live bird showings scheduled for 4:30pm and 6 p.m. Here, local raptor expert Don Veltcamp holds Pennington, a peregrine falcon. The evening is free and open to the public, but donations are welcome. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)

photo

Northwest artists and friends David Govedare and Keith Powell designed and created the feathers for the public art display, titled "Guardians of the Lake," that was installed in May 2002. The artists created two smaller models of the feathers that will be auctioned off Friday during the "Fly Like An Eagle" program at The Coeur d'Alene Resort. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)

photo

Northwest artists and friends David Govedare and Keith Powell, who created the public art display along Northwest Boulevard, will auction off two smaller model feathers this Friday during Birds of Prey Northwest's "Fly Like An Eagle” program at The Coeur d'Alene Resort. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)

COEUR d’ALENE — To a chipmunk, a feather from a bald eagle wing is massive.

To the humans who visit and live in Coeur d'Alene, the eagle and osprey feather sculptures on Northwest Boulevard are also quite impressive in size.

“It’s like, as a human, if a pterodactyl flew over you, a 30-foot wingspan flew over you and you go, ‘Holy cow, that’s big,’” sculptor David Govedare said Tuesday. “So what would make these seem like that? It’s like if you were a little chipmunk or a squirrel running along the beach and all of a sudden a bird lost a feather and it came floating down. For me, that was how I got the scale.”

Northwest artists and friends Govedare and Keith Powell designed and created the feathers for the public art display, titled “Guardians of the Lake,” that was installed in May 2002.

The fabricated aluminum and powder-coated wonders are replicas of an osprey's middle tail feather and the secondary feather of a bald eagle's left wing.

“I had always thought of doing feathers, and I thought, ‘You know what? My buddy Keith Powell, we’ve done some cool pieces together,’” Govedare said. “He knows more about birds than anyone in the world, so I thought it’d be way more fun if we did that together.”

Powell said size was why they chose the secondary rather than primary eagle feather.

“If it was the primary, it would have been a lot bigger than the other one,” he said.

Two much smaller working models were crafted during the artistic process. Govedare is ready to set those study models free, and it's all for the birds.

“One thing that I’m grateful for is these are beloved treasures to this artist ... These are historical pieces for Coeur d'Alene,” said Janie Veltcamp, president and executive director of Birds of Prey Northwest. “He was never going to part with them, so he came up with the idea to donate them to Birds of Prey to support our nonprofit. He calls it ‘giving it back to the birds.’”

The models will be auctioned off Friday during the "Fly Like an Eagle" program in The Coeur d'Alene Resort from 4 to 7 p.m. Funds raised will benefit Birds of Prey, a local raptor education and rehabilitation sanctuary run by Veltcamp and husband Don.

This is also a significant event for the nonprofit because it is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

“Our food bill for the birds alone is $40,000 each year,” Janie said. “We’re an all-volunteer network, we are not paid in any way, so it’ll go directly to the care of the birds and the continued care in our 25th year to keep it going for another 26th year.”

Janie reported that the center presently has about 40 avian occupants, but just in the last week four owls, a golden eagle and a bald eagle have been released to the wild after recovering through the winter. The Veltcamps are able to care for the raptors under special permits through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Govedare said knowing the proceeds from the models will benefit Birds of Prey “is about the only thing, for me, that would allow me to let them go.”

“When you look into the eyes of a bird of prey, when you look right into his eyes, the only thing that comes right back into you is the word ‘impeccable,’” he said. “Living an impeccable life is pretty hard, but being a bird like that, it teaches you that. Letting go of these feathers — they’re my pride and joys at home — to let go of them is absolutely no problem to get them where they’re supposed to go.”

Live bird showings will be at 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. The evening is free and open to the public, but donations are welcome.

“As a nonprofit organization, everybody needs to show some support,” said Greg Walmsley, a big supporter of Birds of Prey. “Around this area, I mean, what do we have? Eagles and osprey and owls. Don and Janie do just a wonderful job.”

Info: www.birdsofpreynorthwest.org/home.html