Eagle Spa

Bald eagles are not uncommon up here, but this was a rare sight. There we were at the John Wayne Marina, looking out over Sequim Bay when we spotted this bald eagle at the spa - I mean taking a bath in the fresh stream that feeds into the salt water bay.

At first a couple of crows were harassing him (her? Who knows.), but it didn't seem to phase him. He started by taking a few drinks. 

Then he got right down into the water to get as wet as possible,  

splashing water over his head, back and wings. 

Then after about 20 minutes of bathing, he flew over to a nearby rock to dry in the sun. 

He was really soaked and it took a long time for him to dry off.

He spread his wings like a cormorant to let the sun and the wind dry them.

Rick really wanted to get a picture of him flying off* but being the good wildlife watchers that we are, we didn't want to disturb him.  We might have sat there the whole day, but thankfully a woman walking her dog on the beach got close enough to scare him off.

Since then we've been back to the marina several times, but no eagle spa was happening. Then today we were back there for a picnic with our friends Linda and James and we told them the story. Wouldn't you know, after about ten minutes here comes the eagle and the crows, and we got to watch all over again. This time he skipped the bath, but just had a drink. He must be a regular imbiber, but bathes only on sunny days. 

*All photos in this post by Rick.