After a couple of weeks of amazing snowboarding, today I decided to take a break from the mountains and go eagle watching in Squamish. About 40 minutes south of Whistler is the small community of Brackendale. Brackendale sits on the mouth of the great Squamish river where it empties into the ocean. This is the final stop for the salmon voyage into the sea, which in correspondence attracts a large eagle population to the area. Brackendale is dubbed as the eagle capital of the world and in a couple of weeks this is where they will do the annual eagle count and determine the number of eagles that remain in the region.
We had heard the eagles had arrived so we went to explore our usual spots to find the eagles. To our disappointment we did not see as many as we did last season during peak season. We scoped out several popular spots but only saw glimpses of them flying high above. We managed to bushwhack our way through thick bush to a clearing by the river and this is where I shot a couple of frames of the great bald eagle flying ahead. In total we saw three flying with the gusting winds. I took some shots but many of them were too far away.
We did not get as many shots as we would have liked but it was a fun little adventure in our backyard. It is little moments like these which remind me that I am truly blessed to live in a place surrounded by beauty and nature.
