Where are the Eagles?

Several years ago I was doing 'road patrol' in the Dungeness area in my county truck. I noticed a couple of photographers set up along the road with cameras and tripods near a dead snag. Sure enough an eagle was perched high in the branches of the tree. I stopped and traded small talk with them. They came over from the Seattle area to photograph our wildlife, great scenery and had been looking especially for the elusive bald eagle. Fortunately they happened upon one in a snag near the road. Eagles make great subjects for photographers. And we have our fair share of them here on the Peninsula. But where are the eagles when your from out of town and don't have a clue where to find them consistently?

I was watching King 5's, Northwest Backroads, a program that highlights the less traveled areas of the state. This particular show had a clip of the Skagit River and its eagle population. It featured a guide that floats the Skagit and targets the eagles along the bank for photographers and bird watchers.
Cool idea. Unfortunately, unless you travel to the Forks area and book a salmon or steel head fishing trip your unlikely to see eagles from a raft or drift boat in Clallam County. Which I have in the past, as my son is a fishing guide and we have seen many an eagle on the Hoh and Sol duc Rivers. But most people coming to the Peninsula are day travelers looking to score a cool eagle image like the two photographers that I ran into on the road. So where are the eagles in the Dungeness area?

First off, long lenses are must when doing most bird imaging. Eagles are no different. The longer a lens the better. I would recommend a lens no shorter than a 300mm for ideal capture. A 200mm will work if you have a camera that has a high pixel count that one might crop the shot and not lose resolution. I shoot with a Canon 100-400mm lens that gives me the flexibility to change my compositions quickly. A solid tripod is another essential. Hand holding a 400mm lens is not smart, unless the birds are in flight. Higher ISO and image stabilization helps in these cases.


Juvenile eagle in flight.

 



My first spot I would take you to is on the backside of the Olympic Game Farm on the Lotzgesell Road. Which can be accessed by going north on the Sequim-Dungeness Hwy from Sequim, all the way to where it turns into Anderson Road and crosses the Dungeness River heading west. Just about a mile from crossing the Dungeness you'll come to the Lotzgesell Road. You can only turn left as it T's into Anderson. Continue past the Ward Road (Entrance to the Game Farm is on Ward) about 3/4's of a mile till you hit a sharp 90 degree turn on Lotzgesell, you'll be looking at the Olympic Mountains now. You will have been been traveling next to the Game Farm's back fence all this time. Now when you turn south at that 90 on Lotzgesell you'll come to a very small road called Jim Lotzgesell Road. It is before the second 90 degree in the road and just before a cemetery on your left. Pull into Jim Lotzgesell Road, stop and look up. You'll see a very large fir tree that is on the Game Farm property. The chances are there will be a least one eagle if not two hanging out in that tree. They are waiting for a hand out from the Game Farm. Your long lens will come in handy for this shot.

Second spot is also accessed by traveling north on the Sequim-Dungeness Hwy and instead of turning left on Lotzgesell Road, continue another 1/4 mile to Marine Drive. Here you can only make a right turn toward the water. You will pass the entrance to the old Dungeness Oyster House, now made into a county park named the Dungeness Landing Park. Continue around another hard left that takes you along the bluff above the Dungeness Spit and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. There is a couple of tiny turn outs that you will want to stop and shoot the spit and the New Dungeness Lighthouse before your view is gone by a stand of fir trees on the bluff. This is where our next shot is. Just last week I was out with other photographers shooting mama eagle feeding her young eaglets.

Mama eagle feeding youngin's

 

Unfortunately I couldn't see the little ones as yet, but in the weeks to come they will be out of the nest and hanging out for all to see. You will probably see more than one car parked across from the nest. But if you don't, it is between where you enter the wooded section on Marine Drive above the Dungeness Landing Park and the road that leads down to Cline Spit County Park. There is a wide section of shoulder on the south side of the road to park on. But please take care when shooting not to go into the wooded section where the eagles live, as it is private property and the owners get kinda grumpy when you trespass. The people who own property across the street of the nest have been extremely tolerant to photographers and bird watchers so we don't want to give them any reason to change their mind about stopping for an interesting shot of an eagle family do we? Well there you go. You not only have a couple of great spots to look for eagles, but other Peninsula subjects to compose that perfect photograph as well. Good hunting!