Bald eagles!
Tuesday, 25 December 2018
Today the most frequent wildlife species we saw were bald eagles and magpies. Both have contrasting coloration. The eagles were all solos, except a pair circling each other (squabbling?).
I have no photos of the eagles, but one was sitting on a fencepost, several were sitting in trees, and one was flying right at me upslope from below. And not far away. Stunning. I’m guessing they’re congregating in the valleys for the winter…where we drove much of the day.
We saw many rimed trees…evergreens in the first shot, and cottonwoods next. Finally, we got into some sunshine—and our world got color!
But the clouds kept getting in the way…still, the juxtaposition of Black Angus and feeding troughs/bales and irrigation pipes all on snow is a nice contrast to the shapes of the trees on the slopes above.
The atmospheric obscurity adds to this sunset shot over the Clark Fork of the Columbia River—we have crossed the continental divide. “It’s all downhill from here,” as one sage noted in a somewhat similar situation.