Eagle Eyes Kaminski

When I was a child, one of the nicknames my parents gave me was Eagle Eyes. So, when Dana and Rich asked me to go eagle watching with them last month, I couldn't really turn down the offer. I wouldn't want to let my parents down. And, well, let me just tell you, Papa John and Mutti, you knew what you were talking about.

We started off at the Deming Homestead Eagle Park (http://www.co.whatcom.wa.us/parks/trails/deming_eagle.jsp). It's a unique area where the river pools out into all of these smaller, well, pools. After the salmon have spawned, they wash up in this area and create a feast for the bald eagles. You can get a feel for the geography in these first two pics:



Now, I know this is going to sound like a fisherman's tale, but it isn't. This is fact. We're talking non-fiction. Real history, folks. Okay... No sooner than I put my camera away after taking that photo of Dana and Rich, an eagle flew almost directly overhead, AND it was carrying a fish in its mouth. No shitting. I'm so serious. Of course I don't have the photo to prove it, but I do have witnesses. Dana and Rich can tell you all about it. It was awesome.

Backtracking a bit, before we actually saw any eagles, we saw the below nest. See it there on the left hand side of the center tree, near the top. It doesn't look all that impressive in the photo, but use your best spatial reasoning skills for a second. If it had been a little robin's nest, it wouldn't even show up in the photo. So, yeah, it was pretty big.
Now, besides the eagle that flew overhead with the fish, we only saw a handful of eagles at the actual eagle park, and they were all from a distance (except for the fish one, you got that part, right?). Being the willful adventurers that we are, however, we drove around the county a bit and looked for places where we might park and explore other shore areas of the Nooksack River.



Our attempts paid off, and we saw quite a few eagles. The below photos don't do the experience justice. I mean, we had binoculars and could really get a good look at these birds, which doesn't read in the pictures that follow, but, nonetheless, the photos do provide evidence and might convince you that I'm not a liar. Rich and Dana's Jeep had some good evidence, too; there was a whole lot of eagle crap sprayed on the driver's side window and windshield when we returned to the car. I guess the eagles didn't so much like us invading their space and wanted to give us a friendly reminder of as much.





We must have seen at least thirty eagles over the course of a couple of hours. We saw some eagle families, even. Did you know eagles mate for life? The bird in the photo with me is just a yearling. You can tell because of its different markings; it's speckled and doesn't have the typical white head the adults have.

The yearlings were more difficult to spot, but not really for me. I mean, after all, you're talking to Eagle Eyes Kaminski.