A pilot program aimed at cutting down on the impacts of birdwatchers on farmland is set to roll out next month. The Be Bird Wise program is run by Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, with a coalition o
Annual bird count carries on through pandemic wenatcheeworld.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wenatcheeworld.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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.
FIR ISLAND â From atop a dike Monday morning on Fir Island, Skagit Audubon Society President Jeff Osmundson and group member Tim Manns could identify the birds in all directions.
A great blue heron to the north, a bald eagle to the south, snow geese flying overhead and dozens of dunlin flocking to the exposed shore of Skagit Bay â to name a few.
Manns and Osmundson trained their spotting scopes on each species for U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Everett) while they rattled off facts about the birds most often seen in Skagit County.
Larsen is touring birdwatching sites with Audubon Society groups in the stateâs 2nd Congressional District because heâs concerned about an upcoming change to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.