Every winter hundreds of Bald Eagles come to poach salmon on the Skagit River in Western Washington. The Skagit River runs from a mountaintop of the Cascades to the Puget Sound. The Skagit floodplain is one of the richest agricultural areas in the world. Tideflats, estuaries and farm fields draw tens of thousands of Wrangel Island (Siberia) Snow Geese (tomorrow's post) each winter, as well as trumpeter swans and countless shorebirds on their great migrations. What brings people, though, are the Bald Eagles. Last year's count on December 15th was 285 Bald Eagles. The highest count last year was 410 on December 22nd. On January 7, 2009 there were 859 counted. (The count includes only eagles that are actually seen by experienced personnel & include those seen in areas inaccessible to the general public.) What brings the Bald Eagles are the Salmon, mostly Kings (also called Chinook) which come up the Skagit each winter. Here's a Bald Eagle standing on what appears to be a 25-30 pound salmon:
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| Bald Eagle with King Salmon |
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