One of the cruise stops was Skagway. We had an excursion to the Chilkat preserve nearby, so we boarded the fast ferry to Haines. By now we were used to seeing lots of eagles and other wildlife, and the ferry ride was no exception. The Lynn canal is a beautiful waterway with steep walls and waterfalls. There were eagles and harbor seals along the route.
Chilkat was a bust. We boarded a bus in Haines and rode along the river to a sightseeing business. There, we boarded a flat bottomed boat with jet motors to cruise the shallow river. We got a glimpse of a massive terrestrial glacier in the distance on a mountain, and we saw one eagle perched in a tree. And that was about it. The guide stopped at a few empty eagle nests. We saw almost no wildlife. Finally, we went back to the dock, really disappointed. As we ate lunch, the business owner put on a show. He spotted an eagle sitting in a nearby tree, so he pulled out some fish from the refrigerator, injected 3 of them with air using a syringe, and one at a time he tossed them into the river. Each time, the eagle took flight, plucked the fish (which floated because of the injected air) from the water, ate the fish in flight, then landed back on its original perch. Here's a selection of the shots I got, which were helped by the fact that I was pretty close to the action.
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| Slowing Down |
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| Getting Ready to Grab |
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| Plucking a Floating Fish |
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| Checking the Catch |
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| Coming Back for More |
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| About to Snatch |
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| About to Eat on the Fly |
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| One More Time |
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| Gliding Down for Food |
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| Maneuvering |
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| Slowing Down |
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| Got Another Snack |
Aside from the eagle feeding show, this excursion was a waste of time. Timing is everything; the Chilkat Preserve does have a lot of eagles, especially in the Fall, but we saw hardly any of them. I've seen more eagles in my neighborhood than I did in the Chilkat Preserve. I saw more eagles from the Haines ferry dock than I did in the preserve.
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