Skagit River Eagles

[JohnK]

Today I got up early (way earlier than anyone else around my house was willing to get up) and drove up to Rockport, WA to see the eagles on the Skagit river. It was pretty foggy when I got there, but fortunately it burned off fairly quickly.

This was pretty much the only immature eagle I saw today:

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

It's hard to tell at this resolution, but there are at least 8 eagles in this 2 shot panorama:

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[allmodcons]

Nice shots. Love #2 with the mountains in the BG. Looks like you had some good light. Nice reward for getting up so early. :biggrin:

-Bill

 

[Louis Champan]

Nice shooting John.

 

[JohnK]

Nice shots. Love #2 with the mountains in the BG. Looks like you had some good light. Nice reward for getting up so early. :biggrin:

-Bill

Thanks Bill. The light was pretty good in spots, with all those tall trees there were a lot of deep shadows for the roosting birds, I was really wishing that Sigma would open up more than F/6.3, an extra stop or so of light would have been nice.

Nice shooting John.

Thanks Louie.

 

[james thiel]

John good to see some shots from up there. It has been about three years since I went up there. I kind of gave up because of the difficult light up there and the limited viewing spots. May have to make another trip up just for old times. Did you lots of eagles on the river?

 

[JohnK]

Thanks Jim, this was my first trip up there. It would be nice if there were some spots on the south side of the river to shoot from. One of these years I'm going to try one of the float trips and see how it goes.

I only went a couple miles up the highway from Rockport, didn't get close to Marblemount, I saw maybe 20-25 eagles. I talked with another shooter (shooting a D700 & 200-400 VR) at one of the big locations (only 1 eagle there) who said the place was thick with them a few days ago. One of the eagle counting organizations reported over 200 along the river between Marblemount and Rockport this year.

 

[RonS]

Good series John.

 

[Gerald Plowman]

Haven't been up there for a couple years......my favorite spot was off the Martin Road......there you had the sun to your back in the AM and many Eagles........a couple years ago the river took out the majority of this spot ......did you happen to go there? From the bridge at Rockport, head towards Darrington on #530 a couple blocks, turn left on Martin Road and turn in the parking area where Martin Road makes a 90 degree curve to the right.

 

[JohnK]

Good series John.

Thanks Ron.

Haven't been up there for a couple years......my favorite spot was off the Martin Road......there you had the sun to your back in the AM and many Eagles........a couple years ago the river took out the majority of this spot ......did you happen to go there? From the bridge at Rockport, head towards Darrington on #530 a couple blocks, turn left on Martin Road and turn in the parking area where Martin Road makes a 90 degree curve to the right.

I did head down there Gerald, I didn't see any eagles from there but did get a nice shot of the mountains.

There was another small road that headed towards the river off Martin between the parking area and hwy 530, but it was very rutted and I didn't drive my truck so didn't try it.

 

[Gerald Plowman]

Thanks Ron.



I did head down there Gerald, I didn't see any eagles from there but did get a nice shot of the mountains.

There was another small road that headed towards the river off Martin between the parking area and hwy 530, but it was very rutted and I didn't drive my truck so didn't try it.

Yep, great shots of the Cascades-river-and usually several Eagles sitting in the trees on the far side of the river. When the river took out a huge chunk of the land it made the distance across the river much further away. Used to get some good shots of Eagles from there flying up and down the river. Nothing stays the same does it?