Seabeck Eagle

[BobH]

Photographed this Bald Eagle at Seabeck, WA today. (In Seabeck, not at Big Beef Creek, which is what people usually mean when they say "Seabeck")

I waited him out for about 20 minutes. He was perched on the beach, just sitting there and looking around. The tide was coming in, and fairly quickly, so I figured he'd get tired of wet tail feathers at some point. He did, and did a little hop to dry ground, which allowed me to get this shot.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Good shot. Seabeck and Big Beef Creek are both great places to photograph eagles during the very low tides will be having in May and June.

 

[BobH]

Good shot. Seabeck and Big Beef Creek are both great places to photograph eagles during the very low tides will be having in May and June.

You would think so, wouldn't you? That's really not the case though. Due to the local homeowners putting up "No Trespassing" signs along the house that line the beach, you can only shoot from the causeway now. That means the lower the tide is, the further out the birds are. Even with my 600 mm, for anything below a -2 tide they're simply too far away to get good shots. Sometimes I'll go and hope for flyby shots, but a -1 is pretty much optimal for Seabeck.

 

[Terry O]

Beautiful image, Bob. Too bad its getting so hard to get good shots thanks to the homeowners. They may have had good reason, though.
BillA and I are planning a trip in early June - can you still get off the causeway onto the beach?

 

[BobH]

As far as I’m aware, you can walk onto the beach in front of the causeway, but it’s really not conducive to walking out much distance at all. In my opinion, the elevation and extra view you get from the road outweighs the 50 feet closer you might get on the beach, unless the eagles were closer than what I’ve seen.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Terry and I were discussing this today. You can get good shots from the road, but outstanding/prize winning shots, like the one that won a national award a year or two ago, need to be taken out on the rocks near water level. Walking over the rough, slippery rocks while carrying a big lens and tripod can be quite challenging.

 

[BobH]

Terry and I were discussing this today. You can get good shots from the road, but outstanding/prize winning shots, like the one that won a national award a year or two ago, need to be taken out on the rocks near water level. Walking over the rough, slippery rocks while carrying a big lens and tripod can be quite challenging.

You can't get that shot any more, at least not from where Bonnie shot. That's one of the properties that put up No Trespassing signs. It will be interesting to see how that works out as eagle season progresses this year. I'm not sure how aggressive they'll be about enforcing them.

 

[BobH]

Went to Seabeck today since it was one of the few chances Deb would have to go. Not much action.

Here’s what a minus 1 tide looks like, pretty far out.

 

[Bill Anderson]

What happened to the eagles???

 

[BobH]

There were maybe a dozen of them hanging around, if that. Those are iphone photos, so they make them look small.

 

[Terry O]

Wonder if the tide was too low - usually, at least in the past, the eagles were after fish trapped in the oyster beds as the tide dropped.

 

[BobH]

It's all about the fish. I knew when I got there that things weren't going to be great, as there were no herons to speak of. No herons means no fish which means no eagles. If it's a bad year for the fish run, it will be a bad year for eagles.