<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">The eagles which normally come to the Skagit must have read about the Kokanee in Lake Coeur d’Alene and headed east.<div><br></div><div>Tom Benedict</div><div>Seahurst, WA</div><div><br><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jan 4, 2024, at 00:12, <ronpost4@gmail.com> <ronpost4@gmail.com> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><meta charset="UTF-8"><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: LucidaGrande; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Jim,</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">I am a current volunteer with the forest service bald eagle watch stewardship program on that part of the Skagit. This winter is a year (as happens in the odd years) that the winter chum run is down. Plus. for reasons not clear, it has declined overall for nearly a decade. So unlike past years when hundreds of migratory eagles (from Canada and Alaska) gathered there, it is down to dozens.</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">I recommend that people stop by our table in Howard Miller Steelhead Park at Rockport any Saturday or Sunday until we finish the season late in January. We have eagles in our scopes most of the day and our forest service supervisors there know a great deal about all the fish and birds in the area.</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Ron Post</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="border-width: 1pt medium medium; border-style: solid none none; border-color: rgb(225, 225, 225) currentcolor currentcolor; border-image: none; padding: 3pt 0in 0in;"><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; border: medium; padding: 0in;"><b>From:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b><a href="mailto:jimbetz@jimbetz.com" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;">jimbetz@jimbetz.com</a><br><b>Sent:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>Wednesday, January 3, 2024 8:33 PM<br><b>To:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b><a href="mailto:tweeters@u.washington.edu" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;">tweeters@u.washington.edu</a><br><b>Subject:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>[Tweeters] Skagit County Upriver Trip Report</div></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Hi,</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> We drove upriver today to see what the situation is with Bald Eagles</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">and other birds. We went from Burlington to as far as Marblemount</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">(yes, some of you don't consider some/all of that trip "upriver") and</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">the trip included going up the Sauk and Cascade drainages and both</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">sides of the Skagit between Concrete and Marblemount.</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> We saw eagles - but not many and no large groups ... a single eagle</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">here and there (almost always perched on a tree with a view of the</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">water). We saw fewer Red-tailed Hawks but still a few. We were not</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">looking for the smaller birds and did not note any of them - including</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Corvids and Passerines.</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> We did not see any deer or elk - but weren't expecting them. No bear,</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">coyote, or wolf. No squirrels or chipmunks.</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> We didn't stop for long, rarely got out of the car, didn't hike. So</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">what we did see was strictly the highlights.</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> We did share an Excellent cheeseburger at the Cascade Burgers in</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Concrete.</div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> - Jim</div></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>