Eagle Aloft

Stephen Datnoff writes: “The weather has been mixed but the sun finally came out on Saturday. And since it’s that time of year where the eagles winter-over in the Columbia River Gorge; I decided to head out to Balfour, just west of the Klickitat River. Usually, I hike in to a spot where I get a closer advantage view of their action and flight pattern.

There is never a guarantee if and when the eagles congregate and fly in and out of this area. Some 165 eagles winter-over but that’s over miles of river but it’s not uncommon to see between 2 and 45 birds in this area and that might be instantaneous or waiting for hours, and if the winds aloft, they’d be soaring way up there and never coming down.