The baldies are back and they’re perching in numbers guaranteed to please eagle-watchers.
Counters got a great first tally when they spotted 263 eagles, mostly on the Marblemount-to-Rockport stretch, in early December.
Wednesday’s count was 324 eagles, sometimes 30 to 40 in an area, all indications of a higher-than-usual eagle congregation on the upper Skagit River.
Counts are taken by Nature Conservancy, North Cascades National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. The eagle population usually peaks in early to mid-January.
The October storms apparently didn’t adversely affect the eagles.
"We didn’t see any impact to perching or roosting habitat on the Skagit River," said Jim Chu, Wild and Scenic River manager for the National Forest’s Mount Baker Ranger District.
"There are still plenty of chum salmon for the eagles to feed on this year. We expect that the eagle numbers would be lower than last year because the chum salmon don’t come to the Skagit River in great numbers during odd numbered years.
"The flood shouldn’t have that much of an impact on bald eagles because the chum salmon hadn’t created their redds (nests)."
The eagles are a tourist draw, and programs such as Eagle Watchers, the Bald Eagle Festival and the Skagit River Bald Eagle Interpretive Center have developed as educational tools.
In the Eagle Watchers program, volunteers with spotting scopes are stationed at sites between Rockport and Marblemount (watch for yellow signs), providing information about the eagle-salmon relationship.
Volunteers are there Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Feb. 16.
"We now have several areas that are good eagle-watching areas, with trained volunteers. Hopefully that minimizes the impact on the eagles and the local folk," said Matt Jager, education coordinator for the Skagit River Bald Eagle Center.
Volunteers answer questions, too.
"A lot of people don’t know that the salmon here actually die (after spawning). They think that the eagles are killing the salmon," Jager said.
"So we spend a lot of time emphasizing that eagles are basically scavengers, a lot like vultures. They’d rather go for things that are already dead. They prefer to eat something that doesn’t move because it doesn’t take any energy."
The interpretive center, besides being the home to exhibits and the starting point for guided walks, also hosts lectures.
Particularly popular are Sarvey Wildlife’s Kaye Baxter and Jeff Guidry, who bring several birds of prey, usually a peregrine falcon, barred owl, great horned owl, saw-whet owl, red-tailed hawk and bald eagle.
Sometimes visitors are a little too enthusiastic and don’t use common sense.
"They pull off the road suddenly and open the door into traffic, trespass on people’s property, go down on the gravel bars and scare away the eagles," Jager said.
So sprinkle your eagle encounters with common sense.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
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