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Portage Creek Bird Watching 

It was a cold blustery winter day and my grandpa Fred, dad, mom, sister, and I decided to go birding at Portage Creek near the Arlington Airfield. As we were walking, we heard a bark, but not of a dog because they aren't allowed. We thought it was a coyote. We spotted something in the bush. My grandpa thought it was a Kinglet. My mom thought it was a Golden Crowned Kinglet, but I thought it was a Ruby Crowned Kinglet.  You can see the picture below and try to decide for yourself.  I tried to get a picture of a Harrier but my camera had been bumped to self timer so I missed the shot. We could tell it was a female because it was brown. Males are grey.

Skagit River Eagle Watching

 My other grandpa, Tom, my dad, mom, and my sister and I drove about 2 hours to Marblemount, Washington. Then we took a bus for approximately 10 minutes to the launch site with our boat waiting. Then we launched it with our guide back toward the parking lot hoping to see lots of eagles on the way. The boat had heaters which kept us warm the whole time because it was a cold December morning.   

The entire trip lasted about two hours, and for the first hour, we only saw about ten eagles. Then the the guide pointed out two eagles in a tree. Then one (a juvenile) went to join an adult on a sand island in the middle of the river. They started fighting over a dead fish. Then they got into a scuffle in the air over the river.  I got a picture of the adult taking off with the fish and ripping its head of with the body trailing behind.

Then the Guide said we were approaching "Eagle Valley." We saw at least 20 Eagles just at the entrance. We saw one juvenile perched on a stump in the middle of the river like he was the boss. We saw about 10 eagles in one tree. The Eagles camouflage with the tree so we had to look for white dots to count how many eagles there were. 

More pictures and a Blog post Coming soon!  For now, you can view the first selection of pictures below.