Anticipation

After our day trips to Whidbey Island, we drive home via Fir Island and the little town of Conway. On one of these excursions we noticed white blobs in a field. We stopped the car and realized the field was covered with snow geese. A bit of research revealed that thousands and thousands of snow geese spend the winter on the fields of Fir Island. So we took pictures and determined to return this year.

Monday we drove about an hour north of here in anticipation of seeing field after field after field covered with snow white birds.

We drove into the Fir Island Farms Reserve - the designated viewing site for these thousands and thousands of birds. Here's what we saw -

It was beautiful in the fog - BUT 

Where are the birds?

There they are!! A few flew overhead. 

Click here to see the sights we were anticipating.

Click here for a video.

As we turned away in disappointment we heard screeches. 

In a nearby pond we saw an eagle harassing a heron and ducks.

Here are some birds! These chickens and turkeys 

were on a farm next to the Fir Island Farms Reserve.

We left the reserve and were delighted to see white blobs on a nearby field. 

Birds at last! We couldn't tell if these were snow geese or swans. 

Can you see the snow covered mountain through the clouds?

These swans were feeding close to the river. 

We decided to try the small town of Conway, Washington for lunch. Fewer than 100 people live in Conway. There is one restaurant in town. None of the other businesses seemed to be open. 

There's a Sons of Norway lodge building in Conway (not pictured here). We asked the waitress about the lodge and the area's connection to Norway. She didn't know the history. We haven't been able to find any information on the Internet either. 

The Conway Pub & Eatery served fantastic hamburgers. 

We definitely will go back on our next trip through the area.

This yard was amazing. We didn't see any signs indicating the name of the artist and whether or not these creations are for sale. 

All in all, it was a fun day - even if we didn't see thousands and thousands of birds.

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Fir Island is an interesting area. On previous trips we noticed that most of the houses were built up with the first living level over an above ground "basement." We asked the waitress in Conway about this. She said the area is very prone to flooding; that's why the houses are built in this way. Fir Island is part of the Skagit River Delta. 

Snow geese and swans spend the winter in the Skagit Valley and then return to Alaska and Siberia. A reserve was created to give the geese and swans a feeding and resting area. Winter wheat is planted for the birds. Read more here and here.

This article indicates fluctuations in the number of birds are due to weather and availability of food. Maybe that's why we didn't see many birds - or perhaps they were in another part of Skagit Valley for the day. 

We've been making the transition from our Fujifilm digital camera to the camera on the iPhone. The iPhone camera takes great pictures, better than the Fuji in most instances. On this trip we discovered that any pictures needing a zoom lens should be taken with the Fuji camera.