Birds of Winter Experience

Hundreds of Miles of Trails to Hike in our Mountains and Forests

Islands, Beaches and Deception Pass for Adventures on our Coastline

Skagit Valley Local - Unconfined

Sip & Savor

Sip & Savor

Farmer’s Markets, Stands & U-Pick

Farmer’s Markets, Stands & U-Pick

Boating + Kayaking+ SUP

Boating + Kayaking+ SUP

Chuckanut Drive

Chuckanut Drive

Biking & Hiking

Biking & Hiking

Whale Watching

Whale Watching

Birding

Birding

Tours

Tours

North Cascade National Park

North Cascade National Park

Deception Pass

Deception Pass

Museum Passport

Museum Passport

Festivals

Festivals

#exploreskagit

View

Feb 25

Well hello daffodils! This pic from @cedarbrookstudionw was taken almost a week ago! Did you know that Skagit Valley has more acres of daffodils than tulips?! 💛🌼🌷

#laconnerdaffodilfestival #laconnerdaffodils #skagitvalley #exploreskagit #magicskagit.

View

Feb 13

Curious Harbor Seals near @anacorteskayaktours custom made finger docks in Skyline Marina.

Photo Credit @tashischorr_photos

View

Feb 11

The La Conner Daffodils will be blooming before we know it! Thank you Sarah from @cedarbrookstudionw for this beautiful capture from this morning! 🌷🌼💛
#laconnerdaffodils #lovelaconner #exploreskagit

View

Feb 9

Magic Skagit by @garylbrownphotography #exploreskagit #skagitvalley #skagitbirds

View

Feb 8

@ncascades Base Camp starts again in April! This is your opportunity to stay and play in the heart of North Cascades National Park for overnight learning adventures with meals and accommodations at the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center. Each night of Base Camp includes:

* Self-guided outdoor learning adventures⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
* Private accommodations in comfortable lodges
* Delicious meals made with local, organic ingredients

Visit ncascades.org/basecamp for details, availability, and coronavirus safety precautions.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
📍Ancestral homelands of the Upper Skagit, Nłeʔkepmx Tmíxʷ, Swinomish, Syilx Tmix (Okanagan) & Sauk-Suiattle peoples

#exploreskagit #magicskagit #visitskagit #northcascades #northcascadesnationalpark

View

Jan 29

The Skagit Valley beautiful farmlands! 🚜🌱🇺🇸
#magicskagit #exploreskagit #skagitvalley

Frosty Cabbage by @cedarbrookstudionw

View

Jan 20

Thank you @stephforrer for visiting the Skagit Valley and supporting our local businesses! OYSTER FEAST at @taylorshellfish 🦪🦪🦪.#magicskagit #exploreskagit #skagitvalley

View

Jan 15

Thank you for following along this week as I shared a look at some of our winter visitors beyond snow geese & swans. I hope you learned something that will have you looking at birds more closely!

I want to leave you with a spot of color to remind you that spring will come this year.

This is a white-crowned sparrow in the fields at Tulip Town. @tuliptown You may recall that the new owners launched last year just as the pandemic hit and everything shut down. I was lucky to get to go in to do some photos, but they had to quickly pivot their business to survive, which they did in heroic fashion.

We don’t know what this year will bring, but my hope is that by the time the tulips bloom, everyone can enjoy them.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for the birds! Signing off— Nancy
#skagitvalley
#visitskagit
#tuliptown
#sparrowappreciationsociety
#genuineskagitvalley
#lovelaconner

———————-
Guest post & photo by @crowellphotography

View

Jan 15

Happy owl day! Short eared owls (SEOs in birder lingo) migrate to our area for winter feeding. Their moth-like flight patterns are easily spotted over open fields, where they compete with northern harriers and other raptors for voles and other rodents.

SEOs are diurnal, so they hunt during the day. To me, their short, sharp calls often sound like cats.

Kleptoparasitism creates enormous pressure as harriers, rough-legged hawks and even eagles will attempt to steal their food.

Scroll through my images to see SEOs, northern harriers and SEOs fighting with harriers. You will see they are comparable in size. The last image is an eagle and an SEO to show you size comparison.

Everybody loves owls, right? If you see these owls, do not approach and purposely flush them. They need every ounce of energy for survival. One missed meal might be their last.

#owlsofinstagram
#visitskagit
#elite_owls
——————
Guest post & photos by @crowellphotography

View

Jan 14

It’s a rough-legged hawk! Buteo lagopus, or rough-legged hawks live in Arctic and sub-artic regions and migrate south for the winter.

We usually get lucky enough to see one or two each year. I have seen them on the Samish flats near Edison (like this one I found yesterday!) as well as on Fir Island, near Conway, where we have several great birding areas.

How do I know it’s a rough-legged hawk? The easiest way for me is to see that white head, white chest, and as Bud Anderson would say “realllllly dark bellyband”!

If you get a close up look you will see their lovely black eyeliner too.

I want to note that all these photos are shot from my car, from a distance, with a long lens. I would never flush a bird on purpose to make it fly as this stresses the bird and might interfere with their feeding. These birds are fighting to survive and any missed meal could interfere with that. It’s fun to observe them, but please do not approach. That’s what binoculars, scopes & long lenses are for.

Skagit Valley is one of the best places in the country to see a wide variety of raptors in the winter. We are so lucky!

#roughleggedhawk
#visitskagit
#genuineskagitvalkey
#skagitbirds
#birdsofwinter
#elite_raptors
#nuts_about_birds

————————
Guest post & photos by @crowellphotography

View

Jan 13

I never tire of watching dunlin!

#dunlin
#skagitvalley
#visitskagit
#skagitbirds
#birdsofwinter

View

Jan 13

When you drive the roads of Skagit County you are likely to see birds hanging out on power lines & phone lines. The red-tailed hawks are big and bulky and easy to recognize. Starlings and blackbirds tend to line up in groups along the lines, also easy to i.d. But, you might spot a lone bird, somewhere between the size of a robin and a crow, that appears to “wag its tail” as it sits on the wire. This telltale “wag” is a clue that you may be looking at our smallest raptor - the American Kestrel. They are my personal favorites because of their beauty. They are also fun to watch, as they hover over fields in search of prey. Unfortunately, they have been declining in recent years and researchers are unsure why.

Locally, non-profit Raptor Studies Northwest (who also teach raptor ID classes) are working on an American Kestrel nesting box project to increase the habitat of this species, as well as gather data about the females.

Scroll through to see some pics of male kestrels in the Skagit valley. Then keep an eye out for a small bird that wags its tail, as if to balance, on wires. Once you find one, you will be surprised how often you start to see them - usually near open fields. As you will see in a couple of my photos, they prey on rodents.
#americankestrel
#visitskagit
#birdsofwinter
#skagitbirds
#lovelaconner
#elite_raptors
#nuts_about_birds
#birdwatching

—————————
Guest post & photos by @crowellphotography

View

Jan 12

Newcomers to the PNW are often surprised to discover we have hummingbirds year-round. The Anna’s hummingbird isn’t native to our area, but it has adapted to the mild climate and takes full advantage of the abundance of feeders available. However, it’s not necessary to maintain a feeder to attract hummingbirds to your yard in winter. As you can see from the first image, they are happy to feed on mahonia, which blooms Dec/Jan depending on the variety. (This is mahonia “charity” in my front yard. ) There is a native variety of mahonia which many people call “Oregon grape.”

There are many plants that bloom in winter, including a variety of hazels, daphnes, primroses, camelia, edgeworthia & others. When the day is a weather bust, as today as been, I make a point to stop by @christiansonsnursery to tour their beautiful solarium, pet the nursery cat, and see what’s in bloom. Since Tuesdays are my habitual “garden day,” when I volunteer at the Skagit County Master Gardener display gardens (when there’s not a pandemic!), it feels right to get a little garden therapy today. Scroll through to see some pics I took during today’s visit.

Do you have a favorite winter-blooming plant?

#skagitvalley
#mastergardeners
#christiansonsnursery
#hummingbird
#annashummingbird
#visitskagit
#lovelaconner
#nuts_about_birds

——————-
Guest post by @crowellphotography

View

Jan 12

Let’s talk about red-tailed hawks. As you drive around Skagit Valley you can spot red-tailed hawks pretty much everywhere-on treetops, fenceposts, stumps, wires... Once you recognize their broad-shouldered football-like shape, you will be able to quickly identify them at a glance. Although their colors vary, a quick identification I learned from falcon expert Bud Anderson is “dark head, white chest, indistinct bellyband!” Bud spent 35 years teaching locals about the raptors in Skagit Valley. He also started a program at SeaTac airport to remove fledgling red-tailed hawks from the area, to protect planes from airstrikes. The birds are safely captured and then transported by the good folks at Bellair Airporter Shuttles (@bellairtoursandadventures )to Skagit Valley, where they are tagged with large, blue, numbered tags and released. The tags do not harm the birds and are easily identified without binoculars. This program has been so successful that similar programs have been implemented in Vancouver BC (white tags) and Portland, OR (green tags I think). Other airports legally kill raptors (often as many as 2000 a year!) to avoid airstrikes. This program allows the adult raptors who are plane-savvy to stay in place, but safely relocates their offspring. So, if you see a bird with a big blue numbered tag on its wing, now you know why! (And by the way, the tags are safer for the birds than leg bands because they can be read without capturing & stressing the birds.). Scroll through my images to see pictures of red-tailed hawks from all over the valley, including close-ups of one about to be tagged, as well as one spotted with a tag.
#visitskagitvalley
#visitskagit
#birdsofwinter
#skagitbirds
#elite_raptors
#birdconservation
#best_bird_shots
#nuts_about_birds
#redtailedhawk
#genuineskagitvalley
————————
Story & photos by @crowellphotography

View

Jan 11

What do birds do when it’s raining? In the case of eagles, pretty much what they do every other day. This time of year they can be spotted all over Skagit County, sometimes alone on the top of a young cedar, as I found this juvenile this morning, or together with other family members. Even if you’re not an avid birder, it’s impossible not to be impressed with the number of eagles in winter. It’s a cold, wet, blustery day today. I hope for better weather tomorrow.
#skagitvalley
#visitskagit
#baldeagle
#elite_raptors
#birdsofwinter
#lovelaconner

——————————-
Story & photos by @crowellphotography

Travel Journal

Let's keep in touch. Read Skagit Valley stories from explorers. Are you an explorer of Skagit Valley?

Submit your story!

Subscribe to Our eNewsletter

Pledge to Natural Skagit

Join our eNewsletter

Follow Us On