For the 3rd year I made it down to the eagle tree in Wendell. I went with my friend Greg aka Harshi – him and I went a couple of years ago. We had planned to get down there and hit a few spots. One being a the Hagerman Wildlife Management Area. On our weekend away last year Greg (my husband) and I stopped by this and there was a ton of birds and wildlife so I wanted to go back. Sadly, Harshi and I picked a terrible day to go scout for birds. The weather was warm but it was crazy windy. There were ZERO birds flying around and not many in the ponds either.

We did manage to get a few pictures of some ducks. After the Wildlife area we went to the waterfall. We saw a lot of rock chucks. 2 of them were playing and eating on the rocks by the waterfall. We spent a crazy amount of time at the waterfall, watching the rock chucks and taking pictures.

Next we decided to go find a spot that was mentioned in our photography group where others had spotted more eagles. We did not find a single one, lol. At this point it was getting closer to dusk so we thought we’d go eat at the small cafe by the eagle tree. When we got there, it was packed! We managed to find parking and thought we’d peak in – maybe all these cars were for the eagles? Nope! There were people standing in the restaurant and waiting. We figured we’d take our pictures of the eagle’s and find somewhere else to eat.

We drove to the back of the cafe and took a bunch of pictures of the eagle’s in the tree. I tried to get some actions shots of them flying but I’m still terrible at tracking and staying in focus. I think I got a couple in focus out of 100’s I took. The wind made it miserable. I was freezing. My hands were so cold and had turned bright red. I had to keep popping into my car to get warm.

We decided to drive to the front and side of the cafe to see if there were more eagles. There were not but we stayed for a little bit and took a few more pictures. At this point we were both so cold and hungry we decided to head out. We found a nice looking restaurant in Hagerman called the Snake River Grill. I had salad and clam chowder. It was alright but the service was terrible. I did the salad bar which was really lacking but I was able to make a salad and then they brought out my clam chowder early to make sure I got some before it was gone which was nice but my friend had to ask several times for his food. We also had to ask for silverware and drink refills. I had been done with my food for 15 minutes and we were ready to give up before he got his food. We were told there was a mix up in the kitchen and they were nice enough to comp our whole meal but I don’t think I’d go back.

Overall it is always fun to see the eagles. Just incredible to see that many in one place.

Northern Shoveler

Ring-necked Duck

Bufflehead & American Coot

Bufflehead

Northern Shoveler

We did spot 2 eagles near the fish hatchery. I was able to get a picture of one.

Rock Chuck

I thought it was cute how the rock chuck was using it’s paw to hold the grass.

Saw one more rock chuck on our way out.

Lots of eagles in the tree.

They look so mean.

This juvenile was in a tree closer to us but only for a few moments.

These trees are a long way from us. I zoomed in as far as I could and saw a few more eagles.

As we were driving away it was getting pretty dark. I saw this one eagle on a tree. I don’t know why but I love this image. I wish you could see just a little bit more of the eagle.