Best area/spots for spotting Bald Eagles in the West Sound (Puget)?

[sam casey]

Any advice out there for spotting bald eagles in the west sound area of the puget sound? Time of day? Locations?

Thanks.

[BradM]

As the year gets a bit later into Winter the mouth of the Skagit River and Fir Island is an excellent place to find dozens if not more eagles, along with thousands of Snow Geese, hundreds of Swans & numerous other waterfowl, there is alos a large number of other raptors and Short Eared Owls.

Other places like Seabeck on Hood Canal can have a large number of eagles particularly at low tide, last year Nisqually Nat'l Wildlife Refuge, just north of Olympia, had up 40 some Balds through the winter.

Ridgefield NWR, not on the sound but rather on the Columbia had dozens of birds through the winter. This and Fir Island are my perferred areas to track these birds down while hunting or fishing if I can't or don't have the time to travel up to BC where even much larger numbers of the birds can found in the winter.

[sam casey]

Thanks. I don't live far from Seabeck and I see some in flight every now and again, I just haven't found a spot where they are either in the trees or better yet, on the ground. I'm looking for areas where I can go and see em. I see and photo quite a bit of the other fowls around here, but the bald eagle has been elusive to date.

[BradM]

Last Feb. in Seabeck at the bay there was about 20 odd eagles on the flats at low tide. They were hunting the Scoters & Coots.

Just north of there a bit at Big "something" creek (I think), sat at the bridge that is at there and shot several eagles fishing inside the bridge.

Further south, down at Dewatto Bay again will have eagles in the trees and on the mud flats when the tide is out. There are several nesting pairs near there and with the current Coho, Chum and Pink runs coming in it maybe a good time to check it out.

[sam casey]

Great and thanks again. I'll check those spots out as soon. There all short distances from the house.

[halitime]

This time of year Chum/Dog salmon will start running so contact wildlife services and find out which rivers/streams have runs.