When It Rains, Always Have a Plan B

Remember all that lovely snow we had on New Year's Eve?Well, it's been raining on our snow for days. We tried skiing at Teacup (3rd stop) yesterday, and had a mediocre outing, so today we thought we'd try plan B.

Around these parts, Plan B in January includes a short drive to the Balfour-Klickitat Day Use area to look for eagles. We parked in the empty parking lot, joked about the crowds, and watched as our friend Skip from The Dalles drove in. He had decided it was a Plan B day as well! This property was the likely site of a Klickitat Indian village visited by Lewis and Clark. An English nobleman, Sir Thomas Balfour, developed a farm here in the 1890's, with a few traces still apparent. Skip told me about the Osage orange trees that were planted as a 'fence', when I wondered about the round 'balls' on the ground near the trees. Sorry, I left the camera in the car for this stop and I didn't have my set of keys. Lloyd and Will had walked away by then, so when I caught up to them and they asked me "Do you know what these round things are?" I gave them the lecture about osage oranges. Lloyd was speechless...I usually say "I dunno" and he says "But you're supposed to be the biologist" as if I should know what every living thing is. I shouldn't have told them I just found out about them myself...

We did spot several eagles from the trail, and decided to head down to the fishing area where we've seen spawning salmon before. It's about time for the spring chinook to start doing their thing. And, lo and behold, they were! Those are live ones splashing, obviously, and to the left. The ones on the right were spent and done. And very smelly dead.

We could see them from the top of the bluff, splashing away in the shallows, so we climbed down for a closer look. Check out the video. Brindle was fascinated.



Up in the trees nearby where two bald eagles...I know my camera zoom is pathetic, but they are the two white spots you see just up and left of center.

Even closer was an immature eagle, who sat on a limb above us. He never moved. Must have had a good lunch!We went down to Fisher Bridge and watched for salmon in the falls. We actually saw them in that carved out area in the left side of the wall. They'd make their way up, then get washed back. Then we saw some jumping in the area near the snow. I tried to time my photos to get them, but alas, it was not possible. You will just have to take my word for it. This shot looks strange, but it's taken from Fisher Bridge looking down at the water.


All together we saw more than half a dozen eagles around Lyle. We crossed the river at The Dalles, and had some lunch at the fabulous La Petite Provence. The French Onion Soup is to die for and I needed some warming up. On the way back towards Hood River on I84, I looked out the passenger window to see another eagle soaring along with the car...what a day!