The annual Padilla Bay Christmas Bird Count carried on this year, with a few modifications because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On a drizzly Saturday morning, Jeff Osmundson and Colleen Shannon set up a spotting scope atop a dike outside La Conner, bundled up against the weather and listening closely for the cries of birds.
âFor a lot of people who like to look at birds, no weather is worse than staying home,â said Osmundson, president of the Skagit Audubon Society.
Osmundson and Shannon are longtime participants in the count, surveying locations throughout the 15-mile circle around Padilla Bay, and said they enjoy participating in this kind of citizen science.