Eagles & The Drive Home

Sunday was a beautiful day to drive home; we had clear blue skies nearly the whole way home to Calgary. And we even made it home in record time.

The Okanogan Valley was full of birds on the way. We saw plenty of robins, lots of hawks, but best of all were the bald eagles.

There's a stretch of road between the end of Mara Lake and Enderby along the Shushwap River where we usually see bald eagles on our drive, and the drive out was no exception. We saw at least 13 in one tree, and several more solos and small groups. I promised myself to keep the camera handy and pull over if I saw some on the way home, and we did indeed luck out. In a single tree just south of Grindrod, we found a tree with 6 eagles in it.



Most were flying around and didn't stay parked all that long.






One landed on a pile of earth behind what I think is a chicken barn.



He hung out there long enough for me to get into digital zoom mode.



Turns out this isn't all that unique. A little bit of 'net research led me to the site of the North Okanagan Naturalists’ Club and their report on the January 13th, 2008 annual bird count. On that same stretch (Vernon to Sicamous) they counted 35 baldies. I felt humbled.