Skagit, 1/14/09

The plan was to head up to the Upper Skagit River area to look for Bald Eagles. Unfortunately at the town of Concrete, Highway 20 was closed due to the landslides caused by the recent heavy rains. I backtracked along Highway 20 and explored a number of side-roads in hopes of getting access to the river. Some where dead ends; while others were choked with snow.

At one point I ended up at Rasar State Park but that too was too snow covered to get anywhere. On the way back to Highway 20 I came across this scene in the fog.



As long as I was in the area, I decied to check out the Skagit Flats for other photo oportunities. Luckily I had printed out information about a place called Fir Island.

As I pulled off Fir Island Road I saw an immature Bald Eagle just of the road, about 20 feet up. I managed a couple of shots before it flew off.



As expected there were large numbers of Snow Geese flying overhead.




At the end of the observation area was a Great Blue Heron meandering down a path. It moved deliberately back and forth across the path and I assumed it was stalking something for its next meal.




There were a number of Bald Eagles in the area both immature and adults. Unfortunately they stayed quite a ways out. Combined with the flat, gray lighting there weren't any opportunities to get a decent photo.

The best I could come up with is this heavily cropped shot of an eagle landing in the distance.



A bit closer was another heron. Again the flat lighting made for some uninteresting shots. However I did manage to catch the bird as it flew for a short distance. Here's the best of that sequence.



I threw together a quick 4 shot composite of the heron landing.


While I was at Fir Island, I met another photographer who had been up to the Upper Skagit the previous weekend. She told me was that there was a way around the road closure on Highway 20. The ironic thing was that I had been on the Sauk Road earlier that day when I was checking out the side-roads outside of Concrete.

Even though it was mid-day I decided to head back up Highway 20. I was indeed able to bypass the road closure and got up to Rockport by about 1:30pm. A number of places I tried were inaccessible because of the snow. I was able to pull off at the viewing area at Milepost 100. Here's what the muddy parking area looked like.

http://artandwendy.smugmug.com/photos/461566139_dFA8A-L.jpg


Unfortunately there wasn't much to see. I think the swollen river had made it hard for the eagles to hunt. Plus it was too late in the day. Except for a couple of ducks that buzzed by the only eagle visible was across the river in a high tree.