Skagit Flats, 1/28/09

With a promise of some sun today, I headed back up to the Skagit Flats. While the skies were clearing, Fir Island didn't offer much. Once again there were a number of eagles in the distance but little else. Unlike the last trip up here there weren't any Snow Geese flying overhead. A bit odd since a mile or two down the road was a field covered with them.

So Padilla Bay was the next area to investigate. In a farmer's field between the Padilla Bay Interpretive Center and Samish Island was this Great Blue Heron.



Also in these fields were thousands of American Wigeons. While driving past the fields the Wigeons pretty much ignored the traffic going by. However as soon as I parked the birds started edging further away. I just didn't have enough reach even with a 1.4 TC on my 100-400mm lens.

One distinctive duck amongst the wigeons was this Pintail. (Heavily cropped photo).



At one point I thought I had startled the birds since a couple of hundred wigeons took off. I then noticed that circling above them were 3 or 4 raptors. I managed to get a reasonable shot of one of them. I believe this is an Osprey.



Samish Island and the Samish Flats didn't provide any opportunities. I did see a couple of raptors, a Northern Shrike, more Great Blue Herons, and Bald Eagles. Obviously none within decent range.

So it was back to Fir Island. I was lucky enough to catch an immature baldie as it swooped down from it's high perch and circled over another large flock of wigeons.





In the distance, a couple of Trumpeteer Swans flew by.



I'm fascinated by the behavior of the wigeons. There were large gatherings of them at Fir Island foraging for food. I would guess that at times there were upwards of 2000 thousand wigeons in the adjacent field. Periodically a group of 100-200 would suddenly erupt into the air. Sometimes they would fly off to another field. Other times they would just re-position themselves on the other side of the gathering. It definitely made me wonder what spurred these seemingly random outbursts.