This edition of Dawn Chorus is a series of visits I’ve had this winter on the delta of the Skagit River in Washington state. The Skagit delta is flat and agricultural, the core being Fir Island, a triangle between the north and south forks of the river. It’s been diked and drained for fields, great for crops with the deep fertile sediment washed down from the Cascade mountains nearby. This area could very easily get built up with residential and commercial development being so close to urban centers. I am thankful the many folks associated with Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland (www.skagitonians.org) and state agencies like WDFW have managed to stave that off, and even more are the wildlife who benefit from open land and waterways. In winter the fields are mostly inactive, with swans and geese traveling around gleaning residue, raptors feasting on rodents and small birds, and waterbirds in the bay and canals. Dikes protect Fir Island from the river and Skagit Bay; otherwise it would be regularly flooded when the river or storm surges run high. The Bay beyond is very shallow and protected (in fact getting shallower every year as sediment washes directly there rather than onto the delta) and popular for waterfowl and shorebirds. A few spots on Fir Island have been restored to estuary habitat by WDFW.
I live nearby, but not near enough to visit often, and in fact my intermittent trips through there are side trips on my way down to the city or to appointments in the area. I never know what it’ll be like on each visit but I take advantage of every opportunity, since trips off island are major expeditions. It’s always rewarding, even in winter weather. The conditions vary quite a bit, as you’ll see in these vignettes, and can be inclement.
Viewing of birds is limited to where you can see them from the road, and in much of the Flats you aren’t allowed to pull over onto the shoulder, that being a safety hazard with cars going by at speed. So it’s always a crapshoot — some trips I just see very few birds. Most of the hawks are perched on trees and wires, and all I can conclude is — There’s a hawk! Some days the birds are so far away from the road they’re just white dots. Other days they’re near the road but there’s nowhere to pull over or park. On those few lucky occasions when the stars align though you can get some pretty spectacular views.
November 21
We passed through Fir Island on our way down to a family Thanksgiving. It was cloudy and getting dark. The Snow geese had started arriving on the Flats a month earlier but the giant flocks were just getting started. About 70,000 migrate here from Wrangel Island north of Siberia.
Some geese were drinking from puddles in a potato field. They’ll eat the potatoes too; this may be one of the fields whose farmers are paid by WDFW to plant crops specifically to feed the winter geese as a way to take the pressure off other fields.
Skagit Bay was surprisingly quiet this time, no ducks to speak of. They were late this year.
December
We drove through the Skagit flats several times in December: the day before xmas on our way down to the city, the day after on our way back, and then a couple of days after that for an appointment in Mt Vernon. Weather conditions changed radically over that week.
It started out brilliantly sunny.
The Trumpeter swans had arrived in huge numbers by then. Saw them on the wing flying between fields.
It was high tide when we came through so a Great Blue heron was fishing just below the dike where I stood. The herons feed in the drainage canals too, as well as the fields.
The day after xmas we had more time to linger on the Flats. The weather was clouding up but still pretty nice for December, our rainiest month in the Pacific Northwest.
Swans were everywhere! At the Conway intersection I counted 700 at least, and that’s being conservative.
Update: I just saw the results of the one-day swan count, conducted on January 26. For Skagit County: 10,449! Total for western Washington: 17,329. Of those, adults: 78%
Jensen Access is a WDFW site with a parking lot where we always stop. With a Discover Pass you have permission to park and climb up onto the dike to observe both the Bay and the nearby fields. A Discover Pass costs $30/year, with the money going toward supporting state parks, wildlife areas and refuges.
The Washington State Legislature and Governor created the Discover Pass in 2011 to offset steep reductions in general tax support for parks and other recreation lands and facilities operated by Washington State Parks, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR). discoverpass.wa.gov/...
The Jensen Access dike is a popular spot for hunters to shoot ducks and geese from. Waterfowl season ran from October 13 to January 27 this year.
Parking on left, dike on right, with a drainage ditch between.
There are many small birds in the thickets, like finches, sparrows, wrens, which are easy to overlook amongst the spectacles of huge flocks of geese etc and of diving raptors. But there’s lots of forage for them too in the fields and hedges.
This was a peak hunting day since many folks were on vacation for the xmas holiday. I was bemused watching a couple of guys dressed all in white head to toe setting up goose decoys in a field. Very elaborate decoys, some designed to look like they were flying in. Meanwhile, in the field beyond, there were about 5000 Snow geese. I’m sure the decoy guys were hoping some might head this way.
Our third day on the Flats in December was two days later. It was pouring rain, a real gully washer. Since there are no gullies on the Flats, a deluge of rain turns the fields to mud. Totally socked in and very dark. Pretty windy too.
Half a dozen Bald eagles were quite interested in something in a field. Couldn’t see what it was but they were tussling over it, diving at each other.
We went over to Jensen Access but there were several hunters up on the dike, hoping I think to intercept some Snow geese as they flew from their night’s roosting on the Bay to the fields inland. I did climb up onto the dike but they didn’t like my umbrella and lack of camo — they yelled at me to get out of there. I didn’t want to get shot so I left quickly.
Instead, we drove down to a spot I’d recently heard about, Fir Island Farm Game Reserve. The estuary there has been restored by taking down the dike and doing some other earthworks. It’s a great birding site! and now on my regular route across the Flats. Requires a Discover Pass. A nice feature: no hunting allowed there. All birders.
It was still pouring rain, so not much human activity, but of course the birds don’t stop for rainy weather.
Near the parking lot is an eagle nest in a big tree (won’t know what kind until it leafs out). The pair of eagles it belongs to were perched by it occasionally screaming at other eagles who happened to pass by, including a first-year immature.
In the estuary about 30 Green-winged teal foraged in the shallows, hoovering along the surface. I saw mostly hens. A small flock of shorebirds worked the beach, I’m thinking maybe Dunlin, beak longish maybe curved down at bit. Otherwise maybe Western sandpiper? The light was really bad, being both dark and raining — a real downpour — and my camerawork none too steady since I was holding an umbrella also that was blowing sideways.
There were also harriers, herons, gulls and eagles out there.
February 6
We took no trips off island in January. Our latest visit to the Flats was a few days ago. Major change in the weather! Cold weather blew into the Pacific Northwest last weekend and it hasn’t let up. We had a little snow on the island but the rest of western Washington got quite a bit more. Temps dropped into the low 20s so nothing melted away. Turns out that Wednesday the 6th was the best day of the week to travel, between storms and the ferry terminal closing due to cold damage. Friday another big storm came through dumping more snow, with ferocious cold north winds since then. But on the 6th it was brilliantly clear.
We almost turned back, looking at the packed snow and ice on the back roads, but forged on, figuring the flat open terrain would be pretty safe, and maybe even start thawing in the sun.
The tide was low this time so all the ducks and shorebirds were way out in the Bay, also white dots which I assume were swans or geese. Not possible to get any pictures that showed any of them. Perhaps if I had serious glass like this guy… (yeah but I’ll live with what I have, which is all I can lift, most of the time tucked into a support)
The adult swans blended into the snowy background while the immatures stood out, just the opposite of the usual winter situation around here.
At Fir Island Reserve, I saw a lot of the same birds I’d seen in December but not a complete overlap. Birds move ;-)
In freezing weather those handy water source puddles and ditches are frozen. We saw a group of Snow geese drinking water from the slushy melted snow on the road. We drove past them carefully.
Eagles galore, we saw a couple dozen at least. Most are just perched up in trees but sometimes they’re out on eagle business, either pairs of adults or different ages chasing and screaming at each other.
We have another trip planned off island in two weeks, and that will probably be it for this winter. The geese and swans start migrating back north in March and April, and the Flats get very quiet. Winter is definitely high season for birds on the Flats. The intermittent nature of our visits means we don’t see everybody out there — far from it! But over the years observations build up. I’ve seen harriers fly by at eye level from the dike, once a Shorteared owl look over at me as it went by. One time I photo’d a tagged Redtail which I discovered had been relocated from SeaTac airport. I spent 20 minutes once speechless, watching a gigantic flock of Dunlin doing murmurations over the Bay. Some more dramatic moments: a family of Tundra swans tangling with Snow geese, several herons strutting and displaying in a field. Eagles cartwheeling. Blizzards of Snow geese flying every which way....
You never know what you’ll see. The prospect keeps me coming back whenever I can.
Do you have a special birding spot you like to visit when you can?
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What’s up in your birdy world this week?