[6]: 88  As a child, he explored the Los Angeles River to hunt and fish, as well as the local beaches to surf and skin dive.

He went to Seattle in 1959[2] on an athletics scholarship[5] and obtained a BA in Speech Communications and a MA degree from the University of Washington.

[7]: 289  He received the national organization's highest award, the Golden Oak Leaf, for his work in establishing the Skagit River Bald Eagle Natural Area.

The award is named in honor of those who have left a lasting impact on the Pacific Northwest region (including Patti Warashina and art historian Bill Holm).

Angell acknowledges a number of influences on his work: the bird illustrators Don Eckelberry and Morris Graves, the carvings of the Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, and a Japanese Edo-period screen carved with crows in the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

[12][13] Writing and illustrating more than a dozen books related to nature, Angell has received the Washington State Writers Award for four of his works, including Birds of Prey of the Pacific Northwest Slope,[14] Ravens, Crows, Magpies and Jays[15] (University of Washington Press), and In the Company of Crows and Ravens[16] (Yale University Press).