• Feb 12, 2004: After reading a posting from Tweeters (see below), I went to the Skagit and drove south from Stanwood on Marine Drive.  Sure enough, thousands of snow geese were in the fields west of the road, north of the Stillaguamish River.  I pulled off on the dirt farm road, got out of the car, walked in about 20 feet and photographed for over an hour.  The main difference from the Tweeters report was that the geese were already close to Marine Drive and in fields on both sides of the road.  I had geese on three sides, and as long as I  moved slowly, they didn't fly away. Photography in this location is best in the morning light.  They were so close that my 100-400mm lens was perfect (although I did put on my 1.4x extender to get some close-ups).
  
  Around midday a man deliberately drove a tractor through the flocks of geese in both fields.  I went to check out another location and when I came back an hour later, he was still driving around the field.  The geese expended a lot of precious energy flying from field to field to get away from him. 
  I called the Skagit Wildlife Area and left a message about this harassment.  
  
  Tweeters Posting:
  "Today I went to the Skagit Flats (Stanwood, WA) to find thousands of Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens).  I took the rural route from the south (Marine Drive) and, upon driving down the slight grade before crossing the Stillaguamish River, I scanned the fields, but didn't see any large patches of white.  Feeling a little disappointed, I continued on north.  And there they were!  I should have looked straight ahead instead of west towards the sound!  The majority were back in the field a ways to the west merging into a less dense population near the paved road where I was.  So I pulled off onto a two-track farm road just a few yards so I wouldn't be a traffic hazard, which put me between two large flat fields and south of the geese.  As I sat quietly in my vehicle the geese worked their way (they were munching grass at a pretty good clip) towards the corner of the field near me.  Soon, geese from the inner area started flying in, in groups of 6-10, to join those nearer the paved road (and my vehicle).   Before long the field by the main road on the north side of the two-track was filled with Snow Geese, causing quite a few travelers to slow down or even come to a stop.  
  
  It wasn't long before geese were foraging within 8 feet of me.  After a while some of those flying in from the west edge of the mass decided to land in the field on the south side of the two-track (farm road) and geese already on the ground started moving, as a group, slowly across the two-track to join those to the south.  I was surrounded (well, almost....there were about 6-8 brave geese who wandered behind my car which was facing in towards the fields...so I was surrounded by hundreds of geese on three sides).  And I, despite the dampness of the off and on light rain, had all my windows down so I could enjoy the goose chatter...I was about to say cacophony, but the sounds were more enjoyable to my ears than that word might imply!
  
  What I found really interesting, both visually and behaviorally, was that, as the geese moved from the north side of the farm road to the south side, many stopped and remained on the two-track.  As I looked forward through my windshield, they formed a dense carpet the width of the road for about a quarter of a mile ahead!  The field actually changed smoothly into the dirt track on the north side, but there was a low fence (just posts and a wire) and a ditch on the south edge of the track.  Some of the geese flew over these obstacles and landed a few yards away, but many of the others just stopped and filled up the farm road!  Is this typical goose behavior?     Judy Rowe Taylor"

• At Johnson DeBay Slough, the grain is cut on Monday immediately after the last day of hunting season.  The TRUMPETER SWANS then flock to these fields to feed, starting at the north end farthest from the viewing area and slowly working their way to the south.  The swans leave after they have eaten all the grain - often within three weeks.  Two weeks after hunting season ends MAY be the best time for photographing swans because they are fairly close and still in good numbers.

At night the swans roost on the slough at the reserve entrance or on Clear Lake and other nearby lakes.  About a hundred swans and a thousand ducks remain on the slough to the west of the entrance road for at least 2 hours after dawn. You can get excellent photos of swans standing, paddling around, flapping their wings, and interacting.

Trumpeter swans start flying into the fields in small family groups just after sunrise; this continues for about 2 hours.  A half hour or so after sunrise the sun peaks over the mountains to the southeast and casts a beautiful morning light on the swans - great for photography.  During the day the swans spend most of their time eating.  Then, about an hour before sunset, they start flying out again - again in family groups.  Once in a while an early coyote will flush them in the late afternoon - a spectacular sight.  The sun is behind them in the evening so photography is not as good as in the morning.

Thousands of ducks also feed in the fields.  Bald eagles sometimes fly low over the field looking for injured birds and will flush the whole flock - another spectacular sight.  Eagles and other raptors sit in the trees around the edge of the field watching for opportunities.

• During the winter of 2001-2002, a farmer on the east side of I-5, just north of Conway exit 221, planted potatoes in his crop rotation.  After the first freeze the potatoes softened up and became a wonderful feast for visiting TUNDRA SWANS.  In December the swans covered the fields about a half mile north of the intersection.  In late January there were only a few hundred 1.5 miles north of the intersection.  Might be a good idea to try to find out where the potato fields are each year - good spot for swans.

• Note:  Hunting season usually ends in mid-January, so the end of January is a great time to go see the swans.  In 2003, hunting season didn't end until January 26th, so the grain wasn't cut until the last Monday in January.  You might want to check the hunting season dates before you go:
• WDFW: Hunting Click on Summary of Migratory Waterfowl and Upland Game Seasons;
  look for Geese, Area 4   (North Puget Sound - Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, King counties)

• At night, cormorants fill a threesome of cables spanning the Skagit River in downtown Mount Vernon.  They spend their days feeding both up and down river and fly into their urban night roost in the late afternoon.  On January 27 only 1 had arrived by 3:00; 4 by 3:24, and 7 by 3:48. Then the pace picked up and more arrived in small groups every minute or so.  By 4:08 there were more than 50 and by 4:45 more than 200 evenly spaced a little over a foot apart on the cables.

You can see the cormorants from either side of the river, but the west side is the most photogenic because of the light.  To see the cormorants, take exit 225, Kincaid from I-5, drive west, follow the Hwy 536 signs to the right, then angle left at 0.35 miles and cross the bridge on Division.  Turn right into a parklike area and follow the gravel road (sometimes muddy) back to the river. 

You can also see the cormorants from the Key Bank parking lot (angle right instead past the bookstore; bank is on the left.

The day was overcast, so I'm not sure about the sun angle, but I got some nice pattern photos of cormorant silhouettes against a light gray sky.

New URL for Skagit Wildlife Area (2003)

• http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/lands/r4skagit.htm   or  360-445-4441 

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