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| Bald Eagle (Photo by Yathin S Krishnappa CC BY-SA 3.0) |
After Sandi got off work, we went down to check the boat and make sure she was doing okay. As we were walking to the dock, Greg startled a huge adult bald eagle down at the water line. It was about 15 feet from him and about 30 from the boat. The bird flew away. It must have had about a seven foot wingspan and a gorgeous white head and tail.
We had noticed a fish on the dock a few days earlier, so it had probably caught one and was eating it.
There are now quite a few bald eagles in the area, fishing from where the Sammamish Slough enters Lake Washington. Their recovery is amazing. There were only 417 breeding pairs in the lower 48 states in 1963. Now they aren't even on the Endangered Species List. Greg remembers when the first bald eagles came into the Puget Sound area after their recovery. Now we can see them flying overhead on most days. However, this was by far the closest we've ever come to a wild bald eagle.
