Culinary Fool's photostream  

I've had to laugh at myself over and over while reviewing my photos from this trip to Skagit Valley. Even when I thought I was taking a break from the birds, they keep showing up in my photos. If you look REALLY closely you may see some dark spots just above the poplars on both the left and the right of the photo.

My first stop in my quest for Swans and Snow Geese was a Fish and Wildlife wetlands area outside of Conway.

While I was there, several swans flew over and I saw raptors and Great Blue Herons but none of what I was looking for - although you could hear them on the other side of the bay.

There was a home or small farm right at the turnoff from the main road to the wetlands area and they had a large enclosed area full of free-range birds: turkeys, chickens and guinea fowl.

On my way back out I stopped and took a few photos of them. The faded areas are where I caught a bit of the fencing in my focus.

I don't know my chickens too well but I think this is either a Dominique or a Banded Plymouth Rock.

These eagles were in a tree where I almost always see them - no matter what the season or time of day.

At first I thought the young one was some other bird. It was HUGE compared to the adult. Females are larger than males so I guess the adolescent was female and the adult, male. But she was 25% - 30% larger that he was. You can pretty much see that in the photo - this is not some trick from camera angle. In fact I think the difference looks a little bit less than it did in real life.

Every year when I visit Skagit Valley to see the tulips I see a few remnants of the birds that winter in the valley.

Over the winter the fields are full of Trumpeter and Tundra Swans, Snow Geese and other waterfowl. I was determined to get up there during the prime viewing time and made a trip this morning. I was hoping for a little better weather and arrived at sunrise - or what should have been sunrise. Instead I was greeted by a cold, gray morning - but at least it wasn't raining to start.

I was rewarded with views of hundreds - probably thousands - of waterfowl and more eagles than I could count. Mostly Bald Eagles but I think there may have also been some Goldens. I'm not sure I'll be able to tell from the photos - I had some technical difficulties this morning. ;-/

Something startled this flock of snow geese and they all took off, only to circle around and land a few minutes later.