Life / Travel

Squamish River, B.C.: Counting eagles

Humbled by convocation of magnificent birds perched in the trees

Volunteers counted 1,617 birds in the January 2014 eagle count in Brackendale B.C., which has the largest gathering of bald eagles in North America.

Danny Page


I was already feeling humbled by the many layers of clothing I was wearing, including an oversized rain jacket, pants, rubber boots and life jacket, the requisite outfit for floating along the Squamish River to count eagles on a misty January day.

Decked out to about twice my normal size, I was instructed to waddle out to the shallow rocks and roll into the raft. Once safely in it, I sat upright and started trying to count all the eagles I saw as we floated down the river.

I ran out of fingers quickly.

The eagles were perched high up on tree branches and hanging out on the rocks next to the water. They sat four, six or more to a tree. We got to about 160 eagles before losing track altogether.

Our guide Jake Freese, who along with his wife Jess owns and operates Sunwolf, a resort and rafting company in Squamish, entertained us with facts about the magnificent birds. For example, the eagle’s cry you hear in Hollywood movies is fake; they typically dub over a hawk’s scream to make the symbol of American strength sound less like a chickadee and more like a tough guy.

(Once you’ve seen a huge salmon carcass hanging from a tree on the river bank, you know these ain’t no chickadees.)

Every now and then, a bird would launch itself from a branch, whip its impossibly huge wings and take off up the river, leaving me feeling like a rather unremarkable inhabitant of the planet Earth.

A hard core birder, who up until his trip down the river had only ever seen a single eagle, broke down in tears after seeing his 80th bird, Freese tells us. Upon seeing about a dozen eagles in one tree, the man wept because it was “so beautiful.”

As for all that rain gear we wore on the river, it didn’t rain and it was a gentle ride, no big splashes or spray from the water, although we were thoroughly awash in amazement.

Big birds by the numbers

Dozens of eagles. Hundreds of gasps. One amazing experience.

Here’s a by-the-numbers look at the trip and the magnificent birds:

7,000 feathers. Your average eagle sports about 7,000 feathers.

1,617 eagles in the 2014 annual Brackendale eagle count. Brackendale, just north of Squamish, happily boasts the largest gathering of bald eagles in North America. The magnificent creatures at the top of the food chain come from as far away as Arizona for the salmon that run in three rivers; the Squamish, Cheakamus, and Mamquam. And every year, volunteers get together to head out to count all the eagles they can see over the course of a day. The record was back in 1994, when they counted 3,769 eagles.

58 minutes. The float down the Squamish River alongside Brackendale Eagles Provincial Park took just under an hour and covered about seven kilometres. The best eagle-viewing is between mid-December and mid-January, but there are still plenty to see between mid-November and mid-February.

20 feet. The size of an eagle’s nest discovered in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, one of many interesting eagle facts Jake told us on the float.

10 per cent. Everyone has to be off the Squamish river by 2 p.m. to give the juvenile eagles plenty of time to feed. They typically lose 10 per cent of their body weight over night, so they need to stock up on lot of salmon before bed time. The young birds are easily spooked by man or beast.

10 cabins. Jess and Jake, not only run the floats down the river, they own and operate the rustic Sunwolf resort in Brackendale. A former logging camp, the pretty little cabins now attract mountain-bikers, rock-climbers and others who come to Squamish to enjoy the outdoors. The Freeses and their friends reroofed the quaint cabins alongside the Cheekye River at Sunwolf. The couple, who had been Whistler outdoor adventurers for years, bought the property in 2010, and started a whole new kind of adventure.

20 years. An eagle will live an average of 20 years in the wild and up to 30 years in captivity. Males are smaller than the females. They get to about 10 lbs and the females can be as big as 14 lbs. The birds look like they should weigh more, but their bones are hollow.

&lt;bullet&gt;Sunwolf ( charges $100 per ride. Kids 5-11 are free. (Kids under five are eagle bait and should spend the day doing something else.)

If You Go

Prepare to be amazed!

It’s often possible to see a large number of the magnificent birds

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