Eagles at Rest

We finally cashed-in my birthday present and took the tour on the Skagit River (about 1.5 hours north of us) to see the Bald Eagles. Yes, the bird above is a Bald Eagle...an immature one. We're told that it takes about 5 years to reach the white-headed state. We saw lots of immature eagles on this trip.

I've broken the posting into two parts so no one gets tired before the end. In this post, you'll see sitting birds. Tomorrow, I'll post the ones I caught in flight.



Although most of the birds were simply sitting and posing with profiles of various sorts, either while resting and watching or between bites of a salmon, there were a few I caught in an unusual pose, like the one above.

In a more "tradition" pose, he is trying to look important.

This one I like with the classic pose and all the colors of the vegetation around him. He was sitting in a tree next to the river bank just checking out the scene. This particular one was not at all concerned about us in our boat and sat until we got tired and left.

We started our cruise at 8:30 on a very foggy, but mercifully rainless day. For a long time we could only see vague shapes in the trees and on the gravel bars along the river. Later as the sun very slowly worked its usual magic, the fog began to clear and we could see that we were surrounded by mountains cloaked in evergreens.

The trees here are in spots covered with some sort of moss of a lighter color that add an interesting bit of texture to the shots.

The pictures above and below make a good contrast between a mature bird and one that is beginning the transition to maturity. You can see that the one below has white streaks start to appear around the neck.

This fellow in a tree is giving the "I mean business" look at something in the distance.

Along the river are gravel covered sand bars. these are interesting to us because here is where you find birds that have found a dead salmon in the river and pulled it on shore to eat. This is the attraction for the eagles. This is the season for the salmon to swim upstream, spawn, and die. It is these dead salmon that the birds are scavenging.

The bird below is pausing on an old stump to have a look about. We did not see him eating.

Here's another bird making the transition in his coloration. The neck has the white streaks again and the beak is beginning to turn yellow.

Finally, here is an eagle caught in flagrante delicto, as it were. He is perched on his fish, defending it from all comers. The Seagull and Raven are simple hoping he'll have a lapse of attention and they can grab a morsel.

Last but not least, we have another immature sitting on a sandbar taking in the scene.