Skagit Wildlife Area — Sunday, Mar. 16, 2025

We are camped at Bayview SP and today our daughter and her husband who live in Edmonds joined us for a day of birding in the Skagit. On our way to meander Wiley Slough we saw a large flock of snow geese on both sides of the Chilberg Road. There was room on the side of the road to pull off and enjoy their activity as eventually one flock flew across the road to join the other. Our son-in-law had never seen large flocks of geese so he got to enjoy the beauty of their sound and flight! After our 2 mile walk at Wiley Slough we drove to the East 90 hoping to show our son-in-law his first short-eared owl, but we didn't arrive until 5 and none were seen. (I will include a picture of a short-eared owl we saw Friday afternoon the day we arrived at Bayview SP to camp. It was sitting on a post at the very edge of the North side of the Bayview Edison Road at the East 90 with many photographers, some within 20 feet of it, seeming to be posing and enjoying the attention it was getting! It was the only owl seen in the short time we were in the area as we didn't have much daylight after checking into our site.) There was not much bird activity at the East 90, but we did see a meadowlark which was a first for the area!  As usual many photographers were lining the roadside hoping for a picture!