January 12, 2008 Last updated: 1/16/08 8:00pm PT
During the winter, Bald Eagles come down from Alaska to various places in the Northwest to feed on left over salmon. One of the places is Brackendale, BC, about an hour north of Vancouver. We decided against walking the 6 blocks to see if our neighborhood eagle is back this winter, and instead drove about 180 miles to Canada to see some. All of the info that I’ve read about the eagle season in Brackendale suggested that you would be tripping over the eagles as you walked down the street. This is not quite true. After returning home, I found out that this season’s eagle count is about half of what it normally is, so that explains why we only saw 10 birds. Now, I’m not complaining. We saw one eagle not more than 20 feet above our heads in a tree on the path by the river. And I’m always looking for a good excuse to make a run for the border (although the border guards kind of looked at me funny when I said we were just driving up for the day to look at eagles).
There are two eagles in this picture. One is on the log in the water, the other is on the large tree stump on the shore, to the right of the river log. The white stuff is snow. 
This is the eagle that was in the tree on the path by the river. I could have stood underneath it, but I’m sure you don’t want a picture up an eagle’s skirt. 
And no trip to the Great White North is complete without a stop at Tim Hortons
Although we didn’t see too many eagles, it was still a good trip. The drive north of Vancouver toward Whistler is gorgeous, even in the fog and rain (and massive road construction for the 2010 Olympics). On one side of the road is water, the other side has steep rock walls rising out of sight. There were waterfalls everywhere. I also finally got a chance to try poutine. Denise took some pictures with the archaic film camera. If those are good, I’ll post more pictures later.