Eagles

Every year Branden and I go on a photo excursion in January to see the bald eagles in the Skagit River Valley. They migrate at this time of year, following the salmon. I believe that this is the biggest congregation of eagles in the continental US, though I don't remember where I read that. Usually we end up going after the peak, and count about 20 birds in a couple of hours along the 8 mile stretch of highway that follows the river. This year, we decided to catch it earlier, and went up yesterday. We counted 51 birds on the way out, and 34 on the way back (many of those are probably duplicates). This is our first year with the new camera (Nikon D80), and we're really happy with the results. There are some photos here if you're interested. You can click on them up to 5 times to more resolution (they get bigger every time you click, but take longer to load). Right clicking should let you download them, if you should happen to want an eagle background for your computer. If you want to pass them along to others or use them in any way, please request a creative commons license from Branden. If you're in the Seattle area and have a free day before the end of January, I would highly recommend a field trip to Skagit. It's simply amazing to see these birds in person.