A Morning Drive Through Skagit Valley-Nov 2019

This morning was cold, but clear, so we decided to take a drive through Skagit Valley and check out the sights.  Some birding friends of Dave's had shown him some great birding areas, so we added them to our normal route.

We even found a few barns with quilt patterns painted on their sides


The famous eagle tree was empty today, but we still manged to count 36 bald eagles.


Mount Baker was out in all its glory.


Numerous wetlands have been restored by breaching old dykes.  This was originally done for salmon restoration, but it also opens up great habitat locations for birds.  The tide was on its way out, leaving behind some ice from the previous night's frost.


In addition to the eagles, we saw many other bird species, including the heron shown above, and other hawk and falcon species.  The shore birds were too numerous to count.


The valley is famous for the snow geese and trumpeter swans which make their home here in the winter.  These are snow geese, but we also saw hundreds of trumpeter swans.  It was a fun trip, plus we took some new roads that offer more of these beautiful views.