STANWOOD — Ron Pera brought the bird-watching scope he knew could be lowered and rotated to the eye-level of children.
He dropped it to less than half its usual height so two boys, ages 3 and 5, visiting from Seattle could peer through and see the bald eagle perched on a stump out in Port Susan.
The stump is a popular spot for eagles and peregrine falcons, said Pera, a member of the Skagit Audubon Society. He and other volunteers brought their equipment and expertise to a bird-watching tour of the Nature Conservancy’s Port Susan Bay Preserve at the end of Boe Road near Stanwood.
The tour was one of dozens of events happening Friday and Saturday as part of the 10th annual Arlington-Stillaguamish Eagle Festival.
Robert Fenster and Sarah Kramer brought their young sons from Seattle in hopes of showing them an appreciation for nature, birds and venturing outside even when it’s cold and raining. The boys wore yellow and red raincoats. They seemed excited by the eagles and undaunted by the gray, drizzly morning.
“We came to see eagles,” Robert Fenster said. “And we have. We’ve seen two.”
Farther down the path at the preserve, Pam Pritzl and Graham Hutchison also lowered their scopes. While Pera’s was trained on the full-grown bald eagle, they had one focused on a younger eagle with a brown and white speckled chest.
Pritzl, of Camano Island, was excited to see the young family from Seattle join dozens of local folks at the event.
“We want to see kids out here,” she said. “We want to get kids interested in nature.”
Along with eagles, the preserve was lively with thousands of other birds on the water, overhead or in the open fields nearby. There was a flock of snow geese numbering in the hundreds, families of trumpeter swans and dunlins that flashed black and white as they swirled through the sky in a coordinated cluster.
Eva Bryce of Stanwood was impressed by the beauty of the preserve. She sells real estate and remembers being out on Boe Road when it ended in farmland. That was before the dikes were breached to restore habitat.
“It’s really amazing to see it now,” Bryce said. “This is such an amazing gift to our community.”
Randi Shaw, stewardship manager with the Nature Conservancy, said she was grateful to the organizers of the Eagle Festival for making the Port Susan Bay Preserve part of their lineup.
“This, to me, is the epitome of what I want for our lands and preserves,” she said. “To be able to discover the wonder of it and the importance of it. This land is part of your community, and these birds and this wildlife and this landscape are part of your community, too.”
The Eagle Festival also featured events in downtown Arlington, including art shows, chainsaw carvings, nature exhibits, a display of old tractors and machines, fresh food and live music.
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
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