Volunteers who meet annually to count the number of bald eagles in a B.C. community famous for its sightings of the majestic bird have noticed a drop in their population.

Bird lovers gathered on Sunday to track how many eagles were in Brackendale, B.C., during the creature's annual winter visit to feast on the local salmon and seek shelter in the trees along the shoreline.

Although the final count of 655 bald eagles was up 28 from last year's total, numbers have dwindled significantly from the 1994 record high of 3,700 eagles.

"When we first started doing it, the birds were in the hundreds and even thousands," said Mike Shaw, a volunteer in the count for about 12 years. "Over the last few years, it's been decreasing quite a lot, which is very sad and been discouraging."

Thor Froslev started the eagle count 26 years ago and says this is the fifth year in a row that numbers have fallen below 1,000.

Froslev believes fish farms may be responsible for the decline in eagles as the birds need to eat about a pound of fish a day.

"If there's not very many eagles, well we know there's something wrong. And what's wrong is there's not enough salmon. What is the reason for not enough salmon? My bet it's the fish farm," he said.

The bird watchers who came for the tally found the most eagles at the local dump.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Nafeesa Karim