LikeSquamish Bald Eagles
Saturday, January 1st, 2011
Every year starting in late November and finishing up in early February, hordes of Bald Eagles flock to Sqaumish & Brackendale, which are about an hour north of Vancouver. Flocks. As in sometimes 100′s, sometimes 1000′s with almost 4000 eagles counted in the area in 1994.
So being that I had the week off and it was a glorious blue sky day, we decided to pack the twins into the car and head up there to see what we could see. There was an accident somewhere in the system, so we got stuck in traffic for an hour trying to get into Stanley Park and onto Lions Gate Bridge, but from there it was clear sailing all the way through, apart from a cranky baby stop partway there.
Hey, I even made a timelapse of the trip up for you! I sped up the traffic bit so you don’t have to sit through it…
The place to go is apparently the flood levy in Brackendale, so we loaded up the stroller and cruised along there – Quite a few birds in the trees! Not as many as I had anticipated of course, but here’s a likely character:
Nat saw one much closer than that as we were driving around afterwards, and there was a few wheeling around, but most seemed pretty content hanging out in the trees in a special park that is there just for them. During eagle season there’s always some folks there from the local birdwatching brigade with telescopes set up if you want to get a closer look at the birds. Well worth a look for the small donation they request.
The flood levy:
Of course, being winter and a clear day, it was bloody cold up there. We were rugged up of course, but the boys seemed to object to having been cooped up in the car all morning and decided to get cranky when we’d walked only a little way along the path. Still, we managed to get a couple of nice family shots 
Then the sun started to go down, so we headed back to the car
From here the day turned into a bit of a average one, including changing a nappy on a gravel roadside where *someone* had managed to get poop all the way up to their socks, necessitating a COMPLETE disrobing and wardrobe change on the side of the road, during which that certain *someone* also decided to evacuate their bladder. They shot most of it out the side of the truck, but also managed to give parts of our truck interior a bit of a golden shower… Then of course we got stuck in traffic for another 2 hours coming back over the bridge due to another accident. Great!
Still, it was really nice to be out in the sun and doing something different, and I’d suggest getting out to see the eagles if you’re on your way through the area to Whistler or wherever, or you don’t have baby twins in tow…
and is well and truly up by the time I get to work. Now that we’re past the solstice the days are getting longer and it’s much better for the soul. Here’s a brief happy snap from Oak St Bridge, which is near my work:
