IN SEARCH OF BALD EAGLES\Discovering hideouts of America's national bird on Lake Cachuma\cruise.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

"Look! An eagle!"

The woman's excited voice resounded from the back of the boat. Our eyes followed her pointing finger and, sure enough, a female bald eagle - too young yet to sport the characteristic white-feathered head - perched serenely on the bare limb of a dead tree.

"Oh, she's beautiful," another woman sighed. "This is what I came to see."

Accompanied by Santa Barbara County Parks Department naturalist Neal Taylor, we had cruised Lake Cachuma for nearly two hours aboard the Osprey, a 50-passenger pontoon boat, searching for the elusive bald eagles.

The regal birds, adopted in 1782 as our nation's symbol, spend their summers in Alaska, Taylor told us. In the winter, when the temperature drops, the snow falls and food becomes harder to find, they head for warmer climates farther south.

Four mating pairs have abandoned the north country entirely and taken up permanent residence near the lake, about 20 miles north of Santa Barbara. Nearly three dozen more eagles have dropped in this year to spend the winter.

It's worth riding on the surface of the lake in the cold, buckled into a bulky, uncomfortable life vest, to spot a bald eagle. Mature birds - like the one you've seen on the U.S. Seal - can weigh 13 to 19 pounds, with bodies 30 to 35 inches long and a 7-foot wingspan when mature. They acquire their crown of white feathers at the age of 3-1/2 to 5-1/2 years.

The wintering eagles nest in a canyon just over a small ridge north and east of Lake Cachuma, close enough to drop in for meals and to glide playfully on currents of air.

"They're not here every day," Taylor said. "Those big wings take a lot of energy to move. We don't see much of them when the wind's not blowing."

Visitors can accompany Taylor on two-hour eagle-spotting cruises Wednesday through Sunday from November through February; the rest of the year, he leads cruises that search out the lake's year-around wildlife, including deer, bobcats, mountain lions, hawks, great blue herons and other birds, and even an occasional bear or two. Sometimes, some of the 14 California condors - bred, hatched and raised in captivity, then returned to the wild - fly over the lake.

As our cruise began one recent morning, hazy clouds lay low over the lake, screening out all but a hint of sunshine, and a cold breeze blew off the water. Huddled in our swivel seats, we used binoculars to scan the water and the shore as Taylor kept up a running commentary on the wildlife we chanced upon. There were graceful ospreys swooping down for a mouthful of wriggling fish, long-billed great blue herons that blended in with the gray-brown reeds along the shore, a flock of Canadian geese riding on the lake's surface and two mini-herds of coastal mule deer who munched grass alongside the shore, stopping long enough to meet our gaze but unfrightened.

"Welcome to Lake Cachuma, the home of trees that forecast rain, flowers that tell time, plants that catch fish and spiders that fly," Taylor said, sweeping his arm wide to take in the water, the trees, the mountains. "After 16 years, I'm still bragging about the fact that I've got the best job in the world. "I've certainly got the best office space."

The spiders that fly are parachute spiders, only about 3 millimeters across, explained Taylor, who also teaches physical and biological sciences at UCLA. When the wind catches their webs, they hang on and use the web as a parachute to land smoothly on another branch, where they take up temporary residence.

The amole plant - used by the Chumash Indians who once populated the area as soap, glue, shampoo and food - is the other marvel of the lakeshore, Taylor said. By watching the color and behavior of the leaves, naturalists can tell when rain is imminent. Its flowers open promptly at 4 p.m. and close at dusk. The Chumash used to shred it and sow it in the narrows of a dammed-up stream; it would pull the oxygen from the water and the fish would rise to the surface, where they could easily be caught.

"This is a magical place," Taylor told us.

Those of us at the front of the boat had an unobstructed view, but we also got a drenching from the spray whenever Taylor kicked the boat into high gear. Passengers who chose to sit in the covered middle of the boat stayed dry, but sometimes missed the unexpected flight of an osprey or the scampering of waterfowl that seemed to walk on water.

So when a male eagle with the requisite "bald" head was spotted sitting in the top of a tree nearly a mile away, Taylor carefully maneuvered the boat so everybody could get a glimpse. Through binoculars, the eagle became more than just a speck on the horizon as he sat, looking a bit disapproving at his winter home being invaded by our chattering boatload of fledgling nature hunters.

"Folks, look, an osprey and a great blue heron!" Taylor suddenly shouted, drawing us away from the eagle in time to spot the heron take wing, followed by the osprey plummeting into the lake and emerging with a struggling fish.

The osprey, like the eagles, live on fish, Taylor said. They sit atop the trees that ring the lake and use their incredible eyesight to watch for movement in the water.

"If an osprey could read a newspaper, it could read it from two miles away," Taylor told us. The osprey dive for fish but often, after all their work, they're confronted by the bigger, stronger eagles, who steal their fish, he said.

Those who missed the birds' short flights groaned in disappointment.

"I must apologize, folks," Taylor teased. "It's not like Disneyland. When things happen here, they happen. We don't know when. We were out here not long ago and had a great big black bear run across the meadow in front of us - about a 400- or 600-pounder. One summer, we saw 78 mountain lions around the lake."

The area we cruised over was ranchland as recently as 1953; that's when the Bradbury Dam was completed by the U.S. Department of Reclamation, creating Lake Cachuma as a source of drinking water for Santa Barbara County and the Santa Ynez Valley.

The lake, which originally could hold 204,000 acre-feet of water (an acre-foot equals 325,872 gallons), has gradually filled with silt from winter storm runoff; its capacity has been reduced to 190,000 acre-feet, said Taylor.

"Our lake gets shallower and shallower and shallower," he said. "Eventually, it'll be a great trout stream."

Recent years' rains have restored the lake - which covers the sites of 17 ancient Chumash villages - to its current 7-1/2-mile length, with 42 miles of shoreline. At its deepest point, it is 144 feet. But during the recent seven-year drought, the lake was reduced to 4-1/2 miles long and the level of the water dropped seven feet, unearthing marine fossils that had lay hidden since the lake was created, showing that in ancient times, the land under the lake had once been the ocean's bottom, Taylor said.

Not long ago, a hiker excitedly told park rangers he had found a skeleton; the rangers went to investigate and found the skeletons of two prehistoric whales near a ridgeline. The skeletons can't be seen from the boats, but visitors can see cliffs and shelves made up of tiny skeletons of prehistoric shellfish.

Taylor, whose father used to fish at the lake with western novelist Zane Grey, said he's taken to heart the plea of 109-year-old Ben Lopez, a Chumash Indian who herded cattle 100 years ago on the ranch the lake now covers.

"When you show people our land," Lopez said. "teach them to see it with their hearts."

"That's what I try to do," Taylor told us. "I've fished here since I was a boy. I love it here. And I try to impart that love of the land and the lake to others. I love to show people what I see every day."

On location

Cruises to see wildlife at Lake Cachuma - about 20 miles north of Santa Barbara on Highway 154 - are offered year-round.

Eagle cruises begin in early November and continue through February. Cruises run from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday through Sunday, and also 2 to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Wildlife cruises take place March through October and run from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday and Sunday, and from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

All cruises leave from the Cachuma Marina. Cost is $10 for adults, $5 for children under 12. The boat seats only 50 people, so reservations are recommended. Information: [phone].

Wintertime cruises can be cold, so rangers warn folks to bundle up, layering a parka over a sweat shirt or sweater and a T-shirt so passengers can stay comfortable as the day warms up. Even during the summer, they recommend bringing a sweater or windbreaker aboard.

Everyone who boards the boat is required to wear a life vest, which is provided.

To avoid disturbing the eagles, eagle cruises stay at least 200 yards from roosting sites so binoculars are a must for spotting the birds and other wildlife. Some are provided onboard ("We started out with 50 pairs, but kids dropped some of them overboard," said naturalist Neal Taylor), but it's a good idea to bring your own to make sure of having a pair.

After (or before) the cruise, a drive north into Solvang for lunch only takes about 15 minutes for those who'd like to explore the Danish village.

Those who'd like to stay at the lake overnight have 500 campsites to choose from, 90 of them with full electric, water and sewer hookups, 38 with partial hookups.

Campsites include picnic tables and barbecue pits, and six campsites also have horse corrals. The recreation area has a small general store, laundromat, showers, snack bar, boat and bicycle rentals, marina and bait and tackle shop. The lake is stocked with trout annually. Camping information: [phone].

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PHOTO[ordinal indicator, masculine]CHART

Photo (1--Color) A female bald eagle, not yet old enough to have the characteristic "bald" head, perches on a branch overlooking Lake Cachuma. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News (2--Color) An osprey prepares for a landing. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News (3--Color) A great blue heron sits on the shore. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News (4--Color) The Bradbury Dam created Lake Cachuma in 1953. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News (5--color) Naturalist Neal Taylor pilots the pontoon boat. Bob Halvorsen (6) Naturalist Neal Taylor points lake birds out to a couple of young friends. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News Box On location (See text)