Winter Into Spring

Joe Meche is president of the North Cascades Audubon Society and also serves the chapter as newsletter editor and birding programs coordinator. He has been watching birds for over 50 years and photographing birds and landscapes for more than 30 years.

Don’t look now, but spring really is just around the corner, even though wind-driven rain is lashing at my office window and the weatherman’s long-range forecast calls for more of the same. In fact, the weather hotline has just reported that all mountain passes are closed due to heavy snow and extreme avalanche danger. As we prepare mentally for a little spring birding, the news is very unspringlike. It seems that winter never goes away peacefully. And sometimes it seems that it just won’t go away at all!

But I have faith in my calendar and the early evidence of seasonal change is all around us. I heard a pair of house finches singing as I went downstairs for the newspaper this morning. A bit later, I listened to an energetic Bewick’s wren competing for attention with song sparrows, chickadees and towhees in the woods behind my shop.

I also noticed that the ice has finally begun to melt on Sunset Pond. It might be difficult to imagine as the weather moderates, but just a few weeks ago the fire department was practicing their ice-rescue techniques there. Now, with the surface shedding its layer of ice and providing open water for a variety of smaller waterfowl, a pair of bald eagles has returned to the snag on the south side of the pond. I suspect that this pair has a nest somewhere nearby.

Even though we’re still expecting wet weather, it appears that we’ve made it through another winter. Daylight Saving Time is looming and will begin earlier than ever this year and — pass it on — crocuses are blooming. This winter will go on record as one of the quieter ones as far as rare or even unusual happenings on the birdwatching scene. There were no whooper swans or king eiders, and not a single snowy owl to report anywhere in the western lowlands, as well as in the prime wintering habitats of the lower British Columbia mainland. But wait, just as I’m typing this, word has come in over the Tweeters hotline that an Arctic loon has been spotted at Blaine!

So, winter birding continues and serious spring birding is delayed for just a little longer. I was reminded of this recently when I had occasion to communicate with a visiting birdwatcher from Florida. She came to the Northwest and planned to do a little birding since she knew that “Washington is such a great place to see ducks in winter.” I steered her to our local Audubon Web site to survey possible locations where she might see some of her “target birds,” and she wasn’t disappointed.

From her report, which will be published in the March issue of The Avalanche — the newsletter of the North Cascades Audubon Society (NCAS) — it appears that she was very busy during her visit. She spent time at the bird-rich bays and estuaries of the northwest county and made brief stops at the fresh water impoundments of Tennant Lake and Lake Terrell.

At Semiahmoo, Blaine and Birch Bay she enjoyed good views of most of the usual winter suspects such as common, Pacific, and red-throated loons, greater and lesser scaup, Barrow’s and common goldeneyes, surf, white-winged, and black scoters, pied-billed, red-necked, and western grebes, buffleheads, red-breasted mergansers and harlequin ducks.

Away from the saltwater and near the Lummi Flats, our visiting birder enjoyed a raptor medley of bald eagles, red-tailed, rough-legged, and sharp-shinned hawks, short-eared owls and northern harriers. She commented that she had never “seen so many raptors in trees.” She also had good views of northern shrikes in the open fields of the flats and surrounding areas between there and Ferndale.

There are times when we need to see our own backyard through the eyes of a visitor. The birds that she enjoyed during her time here are still with us for a couple more months and the seasonal shift will then be quite evident. After the peak numbers of birds move in during the first part of April and into May, we will be well into the spring migration. Shorebirds and other birds that might have wintered farther south will begin moving through the area and northward. Large rafts of water birds can be observed in protected bays and estuaries feeding and resting in preparation for their long journeys north and east to their respective breeding grounds.

The wonders of winter birding notwithstanding, the Ides of March will be upon us before we know it and swallows will begin arriving in ever increasing numbers. By mid-March we should see tree and violet-green swallows on the wing in search of early hatches of flying insects. When you go birding on days that are on the cusp of warmer weather, you’ll notice a bit of avian anxiety in the large flocks of waterfowl. Instinctual urges will rule the day. The overlapping of the departing birds and the early arrivals of local breeding birds usually make for great field trips. Many veteran birdwatchers agree that the best time for birds in Whatcom County is when late winter shifts into early spring.

A full slate of spring field trips will be listed and updated in the March, April and May issues of The Avalanche. One field trip will utilize a new concept for us and will be for bicycles only. This trip will follow the bike-friendly shoreline of Bellingham Bay from Fairhaven on the south to Little Squalicum Beach on the north. The plan is to have an early lunch break on the beach and return to the starting point by early afternoon. We’ll include a number of stops along the way for those who might need to catch their breath and to look for a few good birds.

Another new field trip idea for this year is a weekend camping field trip in mid-May to the Dungeness Spit area on the Olympic Peninsula. If you do not receive the newsletter, go online to http://www.northcascadesaudubon.org and search for the field trip link for full details. NCAS has reserved the group camp site at the park, but there are also motels nearby for the non-campers. And we promise not to call you names if you don’t camp with the rest of us.

We plan at least two trips from the campground each day. One will walk out onto the Dungeness Spit and the other will involve a short carpool to the Dungeness River Audubon Center and the Railroad Grade Trail.

If you’re reading this, you’ve made it through another winter and need to prepare for spring migration and the return of the neotropicals. Birdsong will once again fill the air, cherry blossoms will line the streets, and you’ll greet your days with a sense of wonder at the world around you. You might also experience a subtle sense of gratitude that spring has finally arrived. And not a day too soon!

Let’s see now, where did I put my shorts? §