Stilliquamish, Skagit and Samish Flats Field Trip (11/5/05) Highlights

This was supposed to be an EAS field trip to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary on Saturday, an overnight at Blaine and birding Blaine harbor, Semiahmoo, Birch Bay and Lummi Flats on Sunday. However, only three people showed up on a rainy, windy, cold morning. One only wanted to go for one of the days. So we agreed to forget about Reifel - it would be a cold, wet walk around the loop trail - and just go birding for the day.

We headed north and started on Norman Road along the Stilliguamish River and then continued north through the Skagit Flats and Samish Flats. On Norman Road, a farmer's field was covered with an assortment of blackbirds - Brewer's and Red-winged Blackbirds, Brown-headed Cowbirds, European Starlings, a number of Common Raven and some American Crows. A field a little further on was covered with thousands - we estimated 3-4000 - of Ring-billed Gulls. We also saw 4 of the 12 Red-tailed Hawks recorded for the trip, 4 of the 10 Bald Eagles, and one female American Kestrel.

We continued on to Boe Road. There were hunters here, and they were everywhere all day, which didn't help seeing any birds. At Boe Road where we saw the first of 6 Northern Harriers for the trip. Along Thomle Road we found a few Mourning Doves.

We made a brief stop at the Stanwood QFC and then went to the sewage ponds. As usual there were hundreds of ducks - Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Ring-necked Ducks, Bufflehead, Ruddy Ducks and American Coots. We continued north to Conway and drove on Mann Road toward the Skagit WMA. There were 8 Trumpeter Swans in one field and later we saw a flock of 20 fly over. At the WMA we found Dark-eyed Junco and House Finch.

We went up to Fir Island Road where we saw thousands of Snow Geese in the distance. We drove into the Fir Island Game Reserve to get a closer look. The reserve is to the east, the river and hunters on the other side to the west. A flock of high flying Snow Geese were flying towards the reserve when the shotguns cut loose with a barrage. We saw one bird fall out of the flock. The geese were far off, about a mile away, when they suddenly took off, en masse. The noise was loud and spell-binding. A real memorable moment - the horizon was totally filled with Snow Geese. Unfortunately, none of us had a camera. They flew towards us and landed only about 1-200 yards away. We estimated at least 15-20,000 geese, and we all agreed this sight was worth the trip, despite the weather. 

Further along, near the Jensen access, a flock of Killdeer flew up from the sides of the road. At the end of Rawlins Road we saw more Northern Harrier, but it was too windy and wet to stay outside very long. We continued north across highway 20 and onto the Bay View road. There were 20 Common Mergansers diving in a pool below one of the metal dams controlling water flow in the channel. At the rest room area of Bay View State Park there were Black-capped Chickadees and Golden-crowned Kinglets with their crowns vividly displayed.

We ate our lunch at the covered picnic tables at the beach and got occasional looks at Common Loons, Double-crested Cormorants, a Horned Grebe, a female Harlequin Duck and a female Black Scoter as they bobbed around in the whitecaps. Our next destination was the west 90 in the Samish Flats. There were Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawks and Bald Eagles, but no falcons. In the wet fields nearby were hundreds of Western Sandpiper, a number of Dunlin and a few Black-bellied Plover.

We had rain off and on during the day and always the wind making it feel colder. It started raining hard later in the afternoon and we agreed we made the right choice by not trying to go to Reifel on this day. There were 3 Birders and 40 species sighted.