Rockport, Wash. ? The recent record rain, snow and ice storms in Washington state that downed power lines and caused millions of dollars in property damage had at least one salutary effect: A record number of bald eagles were counted in Skagit County, north of Seattle.

Jim Alt, a bald eagle expert for the Nature Conservancy, stands on the bank of the Skagit River in Howard Miller Steelhead Park. From a clearing of hemlock, cottonwood, alder and silver fir trees, he points to a rocky bar in the river.

“On Jan. 2, there were 350 birds right here,” he says. “I couldn’t believe it. I thought I made a mistake. It was an incredible sight.”

The annual National Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey occurs in 42 states and has helped document the recovery of the bald eagles, whose numbers had dropped by 1963 to only 417 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states.

The birds were listed as an endangered species in 1967, even before the Endangered Species Act became law in 1973.

Yet by 1995, the population had recovered to the point where its official status was changed from endangered to threatened. Today, more than 7,000 nesting pairs live in the contiguous U.S., and this month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to announce the complete de-listing of the birds.

In most places, the counting occurs over one week in January. But in the Skagit River Bald Eagle Natural Area, 8,000 acres overseen by the Nature Conservancy, the birds are counted weekly from November through February. The eagles start to leave in February, returning north to their nesting areas.

Most of these eagles nest and breed in Alaska and western Canada. “The more ice and snow in the winter, the farther south the birds will fly to find food,” says Jim Watson, a wildlife researcher with the Washington State Department of Fish and Game, who studies migratory birds. “And most of our harsh weather this year came from the north. That may have brought more eagles to the Skagit River this year.”

The species still will have protection under other regulations, including the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.