From the bridge sidewalk at Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport, you look upstream over the Skagit River. For three decades, a small center in that park set up spotting scopes, ran guided nature walks, and brought school groups out to learn about eagles, salmon and the river. That center is the Skagit River Bald Eagle Interpretive Center. It now has one season left. Its homepage reads "30th Anniversary and Farewell," running late December 2026 through January 2027.
The closure is partly about volunteers. It is also about salmon carcasses, where floods carry them, and the bald eagles that follow. That last part changes how a Skagit County winter outing gets planned, and the change extends well beyond Rockport.
What the Center Said on Its Way Out
The Skagit Valley Herald reported that the center announced on Facebook it would shut down at the end of the 2026/2027 season, after 30 years of watershed education. The Skagit River Bald Eagle Awareness Team runs it. The team is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that depends on volunteers and donations.
The center gave several reasons, according to the Herald. For years it has struggled to recruit and keep volunteers, fill board seats, staff the building, and find naturalists to lead walks. Winter flooding and severe weather have increasingly disrupted its operations. Eagle viewing has become less predictable because the birds' winter feeding patterns have changed, and fewer of them come to the upper Skagit. More are settling in estuaries and other locations.
Skagit Audubon's November 2026 Skagit Flyer summed up the decision the same way: volunteer shortages, recurring winter floods, and "shifting eagle distribution toward coastal estuaries."
The center's own send-off, as quoted by the Herald:
"We look forward to celebrating one final season with our community and expressing our appreciation for the support that has sustained us throughout the years."
The Burlington Chamber of Commerce, a community partner of the center, posted its thanks "for everything you have given to the Skagit Valley."
An Eagle Goes Where the Salmon Carcasses Are
Wintering eagles came to the upper Skagit to eat spawned-out salmon. This has been documented for a long time. A study of the winters of 1973–74 and 1974–75 found that the eagles fed mainly on dead salmon, that their numbers tracked how many carcasses were available, and that they left once the carcasses were washed away or eaten. In that study, a flood on January 16, 1974 swept away most of the carcasses early. The peak count that winter was 93 eagles in mid-January, compared with 165 in mid-February the following year.
The pattern holds in more recent records. In 2021, a Sauk-Suiattle survey program with more than 16 years of data from 10 Sauk River sites counted 30 eagles on December 1 and 42 on December 8. A single-day count in the early 2000s had reached 100. That report linked late-November flooding, which arrived just as the chum were returning, to washing away the carcasses eagles feed on.
After the December 2025 floods, WDFW communications manager Chase Gunnell told the Bellingham Herald that floodwaters had likely pushed chum and coho carcasses off riverside gravel bars and downstream, into estuaries and the Salish Sea. He also warned that scoured or buried salmon eggs could reduce returns in 2027 through 2029. That reporting focused mainly on Whatcom County. If you followed our piece on this fall's salmon returns in Whatcom creeks, you already know about that 2027 timeline.
The Skagit Valley Herald has also reported that eagles move to wherever food is more abundant, including the Nooksack when its chum run outpaces the Skagit's. The same article named Fir Island Road, Bayview State Park and Padilla Bay as places to find eagles after they start leaving the upper river.
So the center is closing in Rockport while the food is drifting toward the flats, and eagle season in Skagit County now runs at both ends of the river.
Giving Rockport Its Last Season
Concrete's Chamber of Commerce says the best eagle watching upriver runs from late November to late January, peaking from Christmas through the second week of January. The farewell season lines up with that peak. Last winter, the center ran public weekends with guided walks at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Each walk lasted about 90 minutes, and walks and presentations were free. Check skagiteagle.org for this year's days and hours.
A day on the upper river, from the center's own viewing guide and the state's park pages:
- Howard Miller Steelhead Park, Rockport. This is the center's home. The bridge sidewalk gives you the upstream view, and the park has riverside trails.
- Milepost 100 / Sutter Creek rest area on SR 20. It has river frontage, parking, picnic tables, a boat launch and interpretive displays.
- WDFW Bald Eagle Natural Area on Martin Road. The center lists it as a third starting point.
- Rockport State Park. It is open for day use and birdwatching, but river access is prohibited inside the park. Its ADA trail has carried a closure notice for storm damage since December 2025. Restrooms stay open in winter, and water is shut off from November 1 to April 1.
Skip Washington Eddy at Milepost 99. It is no longer staffed, its displays have been removed, and vegetation now blocks the river view. The center also asks drivers to pull completely off the pavement at highway pullouts and never stop on SR 20 itself.
From the water, Skagit River Eagle Tours, run by Triad River Tours, offers a heated drift-boat trip from Howard Miller Steelhead Park toward Marblemount and back. The trip covers about 8.9 miles over 3 to 3.5 hours and normally runs December through February, depending on the eagles. Pacific Northwest Float Trips runs a three-hour bald eagle raft trip from November through the first week of March. Its posted prices are $75 general admission and $65 for children 12 and under or adults 65 and older.
For a meal, the Concrete Chamber's dining directory lists Upriver Grill and Mondo in Marblemount, Birdsview Diner and 5B's Bakery in Concrete, and Rockport Bar & Grill. Birdsview Diner is on Highway 20 and lists hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week.
Where the Carcasses Wash Up
The lower valley is where the flood-flushed food ends up. It also has the biggest winter crowds of birds. WDFW is flying AI-assisted drone surveys over lower North Puget Sound through December to count more than 100,000 overwintering snow geese and 15,000 swans. Several of the main sites changed status this year. Access rules for each one are on WDFW's unit pages for Fir Island Farm Reserve, the Samish Unit, the Island Unit and Skagit Headquarters.
| Site | How you get in | What's different now |
|---|---|---|
| Island Unit, South Fork near Conway | Boat only | Reopened Oct. 17, 2026 through March 2027 while restoration construction pauses for winter |
| Skagit Headquarters / Wiley Slough | Road, parking area, boat launch | Intermittent temporary closures from June 2026 through fall 2028 for the Island Unit project |
| Fir Island Farm Reserve | Entrance road, parking area, short dike-top trail | Restoration did not change access; Discover Pass required |
| Samish Unit, "West 90" | Off Samish Island Road; parking, short paved trail, viewing blinds, toilet | Discover Pass required; closed in darkness except during legal hunting seasons |
| Padilla Bay Shore Trail | County dike-top trail | Wildlife viewing beside the South Padilla Bay unit, which has no developed access of its own |
The Island Unit needs a word of caution. WDFW began a 270-acre estuary restoration there on June 29, 2026, and construction is expected to continue through fall 2028. WDFW's reopening alert says the work by Brumfield Construction left new channels, steep banks, ponds, loose wood, and large stretches of very soft, deep mud. Some of these hazards are hidden at high or low water. The agency advises scouting in daylight, going with a partner, and anchoring boats front and back so a falling tide doesn't leave them stranded on the bank.
Waterfowl hunting season is underway. WDFW's Fir Island Farm Reserve page says the seasons begin in mid-October and run through the last weekend in January, so expect to share many of these spots with hunters.
On the Calendar Before Rockport Opens
The lower valley's winter programs start well before the center's late-December opening:
- Saturday, Nov. 21, Wiley Slough. Skagit Audubon's free field trip runs noon to 3 p.m. from the pavilion in the Headquarters parking lot, looking for waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors on the rising tide. An optional 9 a.m. pre-trip meets at the Fir Island Farms (Hayton Reserve) lot. A Discover Pass is required, and Skagit Audubon asks you to RSVP.
- Thursday, Nov. 19, online. Skagit Land Trust's Zoom talk on the March Point heronry runs 6 to 7:30 p.m. and covers 2026 nest observations.
- Tuesday, Dec. 8, Padilla Bay Interpretive Center. Skagit Audubon's holiday bird-photo show and potluck starts at 7 p.m.
- November through March, afternoons. Skagit Guided Adventures runs a three-hour afternoon snow goose and swan tour for one to six guests, listed at $207 per person. It meets in the parking lot of Shawn O'Donnell's Farmhouse Restaurant in Mount Vernon.
For this winter only, you can still finish a day of eagle watching at the place that taught the valley how. For more ideas around the county, see our guide to everyday life in Skagit County's towns, trails and waterways.
Out on the flats this winter, or thinking about a place closer to the river? Flannery Group works across Skagit County and can tell you how the drive to Rockport, the Samish Flats or Fir Island looks from a particular address. Schedule a local market consult and bring your questions about the river towns.
