Chattermarks

A flit of gold. A flicker of green. Soft song notes from within a tangle of blackberry vines. A surprising whoosh of hovering wing-sweeps, mere inches above ground.

Birds. They are some of the Skagit Valley’s most compelling and charismatic creatures. In winter, the Skagit farmlands teem with all kinds – song birds, raptors, shorebirds, local and migratory waterfowl. You need not have fancy equipment nor years of experience to be a birder here. What it takes is the curiosity to know more and the patience to practice deep observation.

(Title) Graduate students of Cohort 9 extend their birding eye on the Skagit flats (Above) The Hayton Reserve is one Skagit Valley location to go bird watching

» Continue reading Becoming bird observers

Along the Skagit River, the month of December marks the beginning of an incredible display of interaction among two of western Washington’s most prominent species – eagles and salmon.

The Skagit, whose headwaters begin near Hope, British Columbia, travel by the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center, and end in the estuarine confluence of Skagit Bay southwest of Mt. Vernon, is the Puget Sound’s largest river and second in size only to the Columbia in Washington. All 5 Pacific salmon runs, including sockeye, chum, chinook, pink and coho, reach up along various locations of the Skagit.

With an especially high pink salmon run, an estimated 1.2 million salmon by Washington state fish biologists, along with a current chum spawning run, this season could make for some surprising eagle sights.

» Continue reading In the presence of eagles

Top photo: Red crossbill found at the Environmental Learning Center

A ball of fluff caught my eye on the road headed to work. Absolutely a bird. I got out and crossed the highway, trucks at high speed just feet from tackling me. With a grocery bag wrapped around my hands, I lifted the great horned owl to determine the cause of death: high-speed truck.

Why would any reasonable person risk her life for the sake of picking up a mangled, bloody bird carcass? Perhaps a few stories will explain this phenomenon.

» Continue reading Playing with dead birds

It takes a hale and hearty individual to get up in the dark and head out into the teeth of an arctic blast, but Sunday, December 13, two vanloads of us joined Libby Mills as we headed up river in search of eagles. After a round of introductions, we drove to the banks of the mighty Skagit. Early on we were rewarded with views of juvenile and adult eagles perching, feeding and calling.

» Continue reading Eagles and salmon… and dippers