For us, it’s the magic.
For them, it’s the food.
| Snow geese, tundra swans To get to Fir Island take I-5 exit 221 south of Mount Vernon. Turn left, cross I-5, turn right on Fir Island Road. Drive 3.4 miles to the Skagit Wildlife Area’s Fir Island/Hayton reserve. Turn left. Pull-offs along a three-tenth-mile road (no restrooms) and an easy walk (wheelchair-accessible) on the dike.
Bald eagles n Skagit Wildlife Area. 360-445-4441. n Upper Skagit Bald Eagle Festival. Feb. 5-6 in the Rockport area; www.skagiteagle.org. n Bald Eagle Interpretive Center. Rockport; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Monday holidays through Feb. 21; 360-853-7077; www.skagiteagle.org. Trumpeter swans n Johnson/DeBay Swan Reserve. Northeast of Mount Vernon. Take College Way exit off I-5. Turn right. Turn left at LaVenture. Follow it into the valley where it becomes Francis Road; about 3 miles from the 50 mph sign to DeBay Isle Road. Turn left. n Bob Heirman Wildlife Preserve. Snohomish; 800-562-4367. |
For us, it’s the sight of thousands of snow geese dropping in waves onto Skagit Valley’s agricultural fields, rippling closer and closer toward their admirers, the cacophony increasing ahead of the swell.
For them, it’s the food. A nonstop flight of 3,000 miles from Wrangel Island, Siberia, works up quite the appetite for farm crops and marsh plants.
Occasionally they’re joined by tundra swans or a trumpeter swan family, a smattering of variety among the tens of thousands of snow geese.
“It’s amazing. The fields are full of snow geese. I’ve even seen a few of the trumpeter swans along the side of the road,” said Carol Jones, executive director of the La Conner Chamber of Commerce.
Each year, folks find their way to the Mount Vernon-La Conner area to see the winged visitors.
“The numbers get stronger every year as the word gets out,” Jones said.
The 500-acre Fir Island/Hayton Reserve is a heavily diked section between Skagit Bay and the north and south forks of the Skagit River near Conway, part of the 13,000-acre Skagit Wildlife Area.
The reserve is leased to farmers who raise crops during the spring and summer, then plant winter wheat as a cover crop for the geese.
Trumpeter swans are putting on quite a show, too. A stunning sight is to watch the trumpeters come to roost at Bob Heirman Wildlife Park in Snohomish after feeding in the Skagit Valley.
“It’s a great place to go about a half-hour before dusk. They come flying in in family groups, or bigger groups. It’s a spectacular event to watch,” said Martha Jordan of the Trumpeter Swan Society.
It’s all about food for the bald eagles, who return to the upper Skagit River by the hundreds to feast on salmon that have spawned and died.
Steve Aslanian of the Skagit Audubon Society took a mid-December raft trip and counted 130 eagles. But it was another sight that stays with him.
“I enjoyed something that I don’t remember seeing before … 25 to 30 eagles just in one area, soaring about on a thermal (near) Rockport.”
The Nature Conservancy and others have protected 6,000 acres of habitat along the river in the Skagit River Bald Eagle Natural Area.
Bob Kuntz, the lead wildlife biologist for North Cascades National Park, said while the long-term trend of eagle numbers is up, the short-term counts are holding steady.
This year the Nature Conservancy did a count on the Sauk River that set a record, more than 500 eagles, Kuntz said.
“Eagles move around enough so we aren’t monitoring populations, we’re monitoring use. Certainly eagles are more common than they used to be (across the U.S.), there’s no doubt about that,” Kuntz said.
Eagle Watch volunteers can answer your questions at Howard Miller Steelhead Park; Sutter Creek Rest Area (milepost 100), and Marblemount Fish Hatchery on Highway 20 on winter weekends.
For us, it is the magic.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
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