OMG

When you have had the privilege of living beside the Chehalis estuary  for over 20 years, although you always appreciate what you see out there.... you tend to get used to what others find extraordinary so it takes something really special to take your breath away....

and that is exactly what happened today when we set out for our usual after lunch walk....

pictures never do this sort of thing justice but each of those black flecks was an eagle and this was just a small portion of them....

there were more over here (I've darkened the photo in hopes of them showing up more).  All in all by 'guesstimate' was around 250 Bald Eagles soaring over the estuary at one time....

and that wasn't all....

see those white specs out there......swans, lots and lots of swans....

from the calls, it would appear that the ones in close to shore were Tundra Swans....

while ones further out were Trumpeter Swans...I'm estimating about 75 of them....and of course, look at all the eagles out there too

lets post another photo too because this is something you don't see all that often!

not only were there eagles in the sky and out on the flats, but lots of them were perched in trees all along the trails, and they stayed put despite visitors packing humongous cameras about.

this guy flew right in to feed in the grass despite numerous 'eye's' swiveling his direction

this, of course is what the birds are after.  With water levels dropping now, there must be salmon scattered all over.

besides eagles and swans, there were ducks....these being Mallard, but noticed more Goldeneyes today, in fact saw some Barrow's Golden eye yesterday.  Maybe our little 'herd' of Bufflehead that have spent the winter at our boat launch every single year, will show up soon.

A flock of Canada Geese flew in while we were watching....

and there were several Great Blue Heron, including this one sunning itself in a cedar tree.

Let's end with some twins.....