Visited our daughter in Seattle last week, and spent an afternoon on the Skagit; I'm a serious nature photographer, and thought these remarks might be helpful to others considering a photography trip.
We spent two hours on the river with Scott (Wayne and Melissa were otherwise occupied) in the "sled", which is really an aluminum flat-bottomed boat outfitted with large (for getting upriver efficiently) and small (for controlling the boat while drifting downstream) outboards. Scenery is fantastic, we saw upwards of 50 eagles, and Scott was great at positioning and anticipating, so five stars for all of that.
What's not apparent on their website is that the photographic opportunities are really dependent on time of year (number of birds, habituation) and river depth (ability to get close to shore or bars). When we were there, bird numbers were high, but habituation and river depth were low; consequently it was not so easy to get close. With a 600 + 1.4x on a full-frame body, about the best I got was the subject filling about 10 - 15% of the frame. That was OK, but probably would have been better in a few weeks (more depth, more habituation). For great scenery and a nice experience, anytime from Thanksgiving to Jan 31 will be good, but for great photography, it's probably best to go as close to the end of December as possible.
Also, when we were on the river, it was snowing, wet, and 30 degrees, which provided a terrific albeit challenging opportunity for great images (there's something special about snow and snowflakes in the background, but it's also a bit tougher to focus). In fact, we had originally reserved four spots a day previously (when it was even snowier and wetter); five days beforehand we asked if we could move those spots to a day later when the forecast looked grim. Melissa pushed back, stating "we have a business to run and that moving us to a day later means we will lose revenue". Only when I offered to pay for two additional seats and pushed a bit did they somewhat grudgingly agree to move our reservation back one day.
Bottom line--it's a wonderful opportunity to see eagles in a natural environment, almost all the other boats on the river are rafts (not as good for photography), and Scott (and Wayne) are terrific. But I would have preferred a higher rate and a more accommodating policy towards weather-related rescheduling; a rigid 10 day cancellation policy is just long enough to ensure that conditions will be unpredictable. For photography, my advice is to wait for peak season for the best opportunities, book only 2-3 days ahead (despite what is stated on their website, it looks as though there are lots of openings), and if that fails, enjoy the river from a raft (of which there are plenty). read more