“Accidental birders” learn how to Be Bird Wise

Photo: Aaron Allred

Helping Us All Be Bird Wise

The mid-morning sun reflects off the high tide at Wiley Slough. Above, snow geese chatter as they head from their roosts in the bay to fields in the delta.

“That’s a winter sound people are really enthralled with,” says Jeff Osmundson, Education Chair for Skagit Audubon Society.

Not just enthralling, but mesmerizing. Oblivious to anything but the massive flocks of migratory birds, some people park or walk where they do not belong to get closer.

The abundant flocks – of birds and the people who watch them – have grown in recent years, increasing pressure on landowners. Local people and organizations who value wildlife viewing but are concerned about increased problems for farmers wanted a set of guidelines to point to that defines proper behavior.

The Be Bird Wise campaign, launching this month, hopes to reduce conflicts and cultivate an ethic respectful of the landowners and the birds. By creating a set of rules, a toolbox can be in place to fix some common problems.

The Hidden Role of Agriculture and Private Property

Skagit agriculture is integral to the thriving snow geese population that has grown in recent years up to 100,000 (and perhaps twice that). Elsewhere, they stay temporarily. But because of the farms, the birds can remain the entire season.

“If we did not have this agricultural landscape and the kinds of crop rotations that we have, the geese wouldn’t be here,” says Rob Wingard, a Private Lands Biologist with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). “It’s really the mix of this landscape and the abundance of the ag here that drives it.”

Many misunderstandings persist. Bird enthusiasts who watch these birds in local fields do not always realize the flocks are consuming forage worth thousands of dollars intended for something else.

Alan Mesman, a dairy farmer who also runs a beef operation on about 400 acres just east of La Conner, notes snow geese “can eat right down to the ground, and then they yank out what’s left and eat that too.”

Others don’t seem to recognize most of the land where birds gather is private property. Even if fields aren’t posted with signs, it is the individual’s responsibility to avoid trespassing. (These maps can help identify public and private land.)

Be Bird Wise aims to raise awareness and establish clear guidelines, so local citizens are not left to police the situation alone.

Be Bird Wise was the brainchild of Stephanie Fernandez, the guide-owner of Skagit Guided Adventures, which takes guests on tours of Skagit Valley.

When guests book tours with Fernandez, they sometimes ask, “Should we bring our rubber boots?”

Guests are unfamiliar with the Skagit landscape and don’t realize they won’t be traipsing through farms to get closer to the snow geese or swans. When Fernandez takes them, she can educate these visitors.

Most visitors don’t come for a bird tour, however. They are what Fernandez calls “accidental birders.” These guests come to Skagit to visit the tulip fields or shop in La Conner and suddenly see a field with thousands of snow geese.

Wingard sees problems like, “illegal parking, trespass, coming to a full stop on the middle of Fir Island Road and getting rear-ended by a farmer” caused by these same “incidental wildlife viewers.”

The No Parking signs attached to the utility poles along this stretch of blacktop are insufficient.

“I would look and these folks would be a half-mile up on the fields,” Wingard says. “The only thing I can chalk it up to is utter disconnect with the landscape and the people who live and work” here.

This photo is an example of what Rob Wingard explains in the above text

Maynard Axelson, a farmer and longtime Fir Island resident, reports one time when 14 cars lined up in his driveway “just one after the other after the other.” There’s a disconnect, he thinks. “They don’t seem to understand that it’s private property.”

All this activity makes working harder for farmers. Cars block traffic lanes or entrances, putting farmers behind schedule. The presence of these uninvited guests increases landowners’ concerns about safety and liability.

Osmundson, who represents the Skagit Audubon Society on the Be Bird Wise committee, acknowledges that even locals and experienced birders can slip.

“People with binoculars, scopes, and cameras, they’re just not very aware sometimes,” he says.

Launching Be Bird Wise

Tired of seeing people running into fields holding hands to flush birds or hearing the honks of passing cars and otherwise witnessing bad behavior, a group of affected organizations wanted to create a better way.

Fernandez knew that whale watchers developed their own guidelines for responsible viewing, Be Whale Wise. She thought a similar campaign might help in Skagit County: a clear set of rules to help people watch wildlife safely for them, landowners, and wildlife.

Be Bird Wise was born.

After months of discussions and regular meetings, the Be Bird Wise partner committee, with the assistance of Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, has prepared its pilot project for Fir Island Road. Signs will instruct people in respectful interaction of property and birds.

Wingard, the WDFW biologist explains a central dilemma: “As an agency, we don’t want to stomp on that enthusiasm for wildlife. That is good. We want people to be excited about wildlife.” But people need to view wildlife and interact with it – and the farmers – respectfully. “That’s why working with Bird Wise and Skagitonians on this project is so important.”

Photo: Stephanie Fernandez

Hopes for Success

Hopes are high for Be Bird Wise’s success.

Osmundson hopes conflicts decrease among all the user groups present in Skagit: “The birding community doesn’t want a bad reputation because we want to go places. Access is a precious commodity.”

Axelson understands why people want to visit this “magical area,” but he would like those who travel here to develop a more thoughtful mindset around property and safety, while asking permission of landowners.

Similarly, Mesman wants more people to realize the essential role agriculture plays for these flocks of birds.

“Preserving farmland and preserving agriculture here in the Skagit Valley is the best chance that this wildlife has to survive,” says Mesman. “Because if this was all a subdivision and a couple of big Wal-Marts, those birds are not stopping here.”

Fernandez wants Be Bird Wise to help accidental birders become respectful of landowners, the land, and the birds.

“Farmers give so much to us,” Fernandez says. “I just feel that this is one way for me to give back.”

By Adam Sowards: info@skagitonians.org