As farmers hurry to finish up in their fields for the summer, there’s another frenzy gathering above them. Fall bird migration season has begun in the Skagit Valley. On any given night in October, more than 150,000 birds fly over the Skagit—nearly twice the average daily number of vehicles crossing the Skagit River Bridge on I-5.

Most of these migratory birds continue to warmer climates. But some 100,000 snow geese will stay and overwinter in the Valley. Many birders will then begin their own annual migration to the Skagit, looking for the marvelous spectacle of wintering birds.

While birds outnumber humans by a large margin, human activity near a working landscape can have an outsized impact. That’s why Skagitonians teamed up with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and local birding and tourism organizations to educate people viewing the birds, reduce conflict with landowners, and develop a respectful ethic. Our message is simple: Be Bird Wise. As we begin another winter season, we’re reprising our original Be Bird Wise blog post, recapping a few things worth remembering as we head into another bird-filled winter.

Next Time, Be Bird Wise

The midmorning sun reflects off the high tide at Wiley Slough, and far 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 for some, who ignore traffic, property lines, and crops. Oblivious to anything but the massive flocks of migratory birds, they park or walk where they do not belong to get closer.

The abundant snow geese and other migratory birds in Skagit County during winter count as a conservation success story, but it’s a complicated one and generates conflict in this agricultural community.

The flocks – of geese and swans and the people who watch them – have grown in recent years, increasing pressure on landowners.

From Scarcity to Abundance

The snow goose breeding ground is Wrangel Island, Russia, well north of the Arctic Circle. Every fall, they head south along the Pacific Flyway. Two generations ago, Skagit hosted 20,000 to 30,000 birds while the Wrangel Island population dropped steadily until about 1980. Longtime Skagit Valley residents like Maynard Axelson and Alan Mesman, farmers who grew up here, remember very few snow geese from their childhood. Now, 100,000 and perhaps up to twice that number in winter here, rely on the crops planted in Skagit farmers' fields.

The shift from declining populations to superabundance changes how the birds fit on the land. Rob Wingard, a private lands biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, explained this recovery and how it requires a change in mindset and management. The bag limit for hunters, for example, has more than tripled in the last decade, and scarcity is no longer a concern.

As Wingard shares this success story for birds, dozens of snow geese rise and fall in a distant field.

Agriculture’s Misunderstood Role

Skagit agriculture is an integral role that allows bird life to thrive. Elsewhere in the Pacific Flyway, snow geese stay temporarily. But because of the farms, the birds can stay here 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," Wingard says. "It's really the mix of this landscape and the abundance of the ag here that drives it."

The agricultural landscape and the farmers who maintain it are central to the bird abundance in the Skagit. However, not everyone enjoying the birds recognizes this fact. Many misunderstandings persist.

Mesman, a dairy farmer who also runs a beef operation on about 400 acres just east of La Conner, sees geese as the biggest problem and not just because they are the most numerous. Snow geese “can eat right down to the ground, and then they yank out what’s left and eat that too.”

Not all bird enthusiasts who watch these birds on Mesman’s and others’ fields realize the flocks are consuming forage worth thousands of dollars intended for something else.

Disconnect around Private Property

If some visitors to the valley don’t realize the costs to farmers, others don’t seem to recognize most of the land where the snow geese and swans gather is private property. Be Bird Wise aims to raise awareness and promote better etiquette around this oversight.

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?” This question represents an opportunity. Guests are unfamiliar with the Skagit landscape and its farms and don’t realize they won’t be traipsing through farm fields to get closer to the snow geese or swans. When Fernandez takes them, she can educate these visitors to the valley, and they seem receptive and grateful.

Most visitors don’t come for a bird tour, however. They are what Fernandez calls “accidental birders.” These sometimes troublesome guests come to Skagit to visit the tulip fields or La Conner and suddenly they see a field with thousands of snow geese. Sometimes, they slam on their brakes and become “accidental birders” in a second sense – causing an automobile accident!

Wingard points out 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 "incidental wildlife viewers," even though No Parking signs are attached to every few utility poles along this stretch of blacktop.

Maynard Axelson, a farmer and longtime Fir Island resident, reports one time when 14 cars lined up in his driveway. “Cars were just driving in, 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.”

Mesman says that occasionally people drive into his fields or walk through the barnyard and buildings to get closer to the birds.

Wingard recalls the challenge of spring 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with many visitors unfamiliar with Skagit. Sometimes, more than 100 vehicles were parked at a farmer’s potato sheds on Fir Island Road. “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 in this landscape.”

All this activity makes working harder for farmers. Cars block entrances and put farmers behind schedule. The presence of these uninvited guests increases worry and has some landowners concerned about safety and liability.

Osmundson, who represents the Skagit Audubon Society on the Be Bird Wise coalition, acknowledges that even locals and experienced birders can slip. “People with binoculars, scopes, and cameras, they’re just not very aware sometimes,” he said.

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 concerned citizens are hoping to create a better way.

Because Fernandez has more than three decades of experience with ecotourism, she knew how whale watchers developed their guidelines for responsible viewing through a Be Whale Wise campaign. She thought a similar campaign might help birdwatching in Skagit County. Fernandez approached Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland to help coordinate interested parties and Be Bird Wise was born.

The situation presents multiple dilemmas. Wingard explains, “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.”

Since the Be Bird Wise initiative launched, coalition partners have worked with landowners to secure additional safe places for parking and helped landowners post their property with signs that specifically address the birding population. Be Bird Wise now has its own Code of Conduct, whose tenets include the need to plan and be aware of the private lands and working farms.

Hopes for 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." Being more bird-wise might save some of that limited resource.

Axelson understands this as a "magical area," "a natural treasure," and he doesn't want to "criticize these people for wanting to come to see it because it's the same thing that brought my grandpa here from Sweden when he was 17." Still, 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.” Because of that, he thinks the people who come “in some small way need to take part in preserving this valley so that you can come up here and observe these birds. Because if this was all a subdivision and a couple of big Wal-Marts, those birds are not stopping here. They’re going to go somewhere else.”

Fernandez wants Be Bird Wise to help accidental birders become respectful of landowners, the land, and the birds; and she hopes farmers welcome it. “Farmers give so much to us,” Fernandez says. “I just feel that this is one way for me to give back.”

Story by Adam Sowards

Be Bird Wise is Back!