THE EAGLES HAVE LANDED!!

Sometimes you just have to smell the roses.  Our friends – Gary & Marilyn Miller offered to take us up to see the annual migration of the Eagles back into the Skagit Valley Finney Creek Salmon habitat.  They certainly have a lot of strange names in this Sedro-Woolley  area, don’t they?

In order to have you understand this chapter, I must take a little time to explain a little bit about this unusual ecosystem that makes up the Salmon/Eagle relationship.  So, bear with me as I try to have this make sense for you.  It’s complex and wonderful.

 

Within an hours drive of Dunrovin’ is the community of “Concrete”, which is little community where my story begins.  I will start with the Salmon, which is the main character and the reason Eagles come here.

Salmon always return to their birthplace to spawn (make babies).   They have to be at least two years old, and some species seven yrs. old to reproduce.  There are five different species in this area, and I have shown pictures of the two types most common found here.  The picture on the left is the Chinook and the one on the right is the Pink Salmon; referred to as a “humpie” for the dorsal hump, which is only evident on a spawning male.

The spawning season begins in late fall and can continue through about mid-February.  Essentially,  adults have returned from the Pacific Ocean where they have fed and matured.  They then must migrate up the streams and rivers to the place they were born.  The females clear safe areas under logs and in back-water eddies in the stream bed to lay their eggs.  The males fertilize the eggs and the eggs mature hidden in the gravel.  These “alevins” (eggs) hatch into “fry” (baby fish).  Once they emerge, the fry are driven by instinct to seek saltwater.  The fry head down stream and emerge into Puget Sound.  Once they hit saltwater the fry are called “smolts.”  These smolts will eat and grow to staggering sizes for up to seven years before they return to spawn.

If you look at the Humpie shown on the bottom of the picture, you will notice he looks a little ragged.  He is actually dying.  Once they finish spawning, their life-cycle is over and they become either fertilizer or food for Eagles.

American Bald Eagles follow the food-chain.  Our little adventure was very successful.  We lost count, but I’m sure that we saw perhaps thirty Eagles in our half day-trip.

Just before we left, we discovered that last night’s windstorm flipped our car cover over.  When we returned, Gary and Marylyn helped Jole and I to right  the cover and reposition it.  Fortunately, the canvas was not harmed. 

It was a rainy day, considered ideal for Eagle watching.  The indigenous Indian tribes lived by harvesting Salmon.  The early pioneers to this area also enjoyed fishing and hunting.  This picture is an actual wood carving — also very popular here.   Logging still continues today, but was the major economic factor in the history of this area.

At the base of Lower Baker Dam, is the tiny burg of Newhalem.  We found this little totem and a little steam engine used by the local power company in the 20’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the trip and found time on the way back home to stop at a small chapel to renew our vows.

 

The views were nothing short of spectacular.  This is the foothills of the Northern Cascades.  The Western side of these mountains is a temperate rainforest covered with lush vegetation.  

 

 

 

 

 

If you look closely at the trees, they look like they have hair.  This is a special type of moss called Lichens. 

The water is sort of blue-green, tinted by the metal elements picked up in the mineral-rich earth here.  Our trip weaved through the valley basin following the salmon rivers.  Your views are constantly captured by the mountain peaks on both sides of the road ,  each one streaked by little run-off streams.   As we headed back home, we all vowed to come back in the Spring to see this area in newly minted foliage and bright sunlight.

Oh, by the way, I almost forgot to tell you that my friend Gary was able to video a pair of otters playing and gorging themselves on catfish and trout on our Reed Lake this past week.

It’s hard to aptly describe the joy we feel living so close to nature’s bounty.  Our area just explodes with life and it is so invigorating.  I hope that this chapter shows a little of the beauty that surrounds us here.

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