Bird Watching in Whatcom and Skagit Counties

Bird watching is a popular activity in Washington, especially here in Whatcom and nearby Skagit Counties. In the winters the eagles are here, as I talked about in one of my recent entries,  A great time to see Eagles in Northwest Washington.  

One of north America's great winter bird migrations comes to the fertile Skagit Valley. Millions of birds return to the Skagit Farmlands and Skagit River estuary  both of which provide abundant food for these returning feathered friends. There are flocks of magnificent Trumpeter Swans  and Snow Geese as well as many raptors including Red-tailed hawks, Northern Harriers, and Osprey.

There are always Great Blue Heron, and abundant Buffleheads,Western and Red-Necked Grebe, Black Oystercatchers, Common Loons, Common and Red-Breasted Mergansers, Surf Scoters, Pigeon Guillemot, Rhinoceros Auklet, Double-Crested and Pelagic Cormorants, Common and Barrow's Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Black Turnstone, Dunlin, as well as several varieties of Gulls.

Semiahmoo Park in Whatcom County is a popular birdwatching site.  You can also look across Drayton Harbor to Mount Baker and across Semiahmoo Bay to White Rock, B.C. Bring your binoculars and see what kinds of birds you can spot..

The George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary is not very far away across the border in British Columbia, It is at the mouth of the Fraser River. They say that more than 1.5 million birds pass through the sanctuary every year (240 species have been spotted)! 

Photos thanks to flickr.com byjcheng & By jcheng