Eagles

Every winter bald eagles converge on an area called Brackendale, just outside Squamish about 45 minutes from Vancouver. They start arriving in mid November and stay until mid February, with the largest numbers being late December into January.

The attraction for the eagles is the plentiful supply of food - dying salmon in the Squamish, Mamquam and Cheakumus Rivers.

We visited at the end of January, towards the end of the 'eagle season' but still saw about half a dozen adults and one young. The young eagles can still be the same size as an adult, but don't develop the full colours and white head until they are 4-5 years old.

We only stayed about half an hour as it was absolutely freezing - the air temperature was about -2 but with the windchill it must have been -10 at least. Next year we will take ski-standard hats & gloves rather than the ordinary ones we had with us. We are still adjusting to these funny winter temperatures.

Here are a few of the still photos we have taken. I will try and upload some video footage shortly.





This is a photo of the young Eagle - it is still brown all over.