Birds & Brew Skagit Valley
What you’ll find in this post:
Guide to Skagit Valley birding in winter.
We excelled at the birding part, but royally failed a the brew part.
Every year we take an annual mini road trip to go birding in the Skagit Valley. Winter time is a favorable time to go birding in Washington as many bird populations migrate to this area from the colder regions like Canada, Alaska, and even Siberia.
We’d heard of the Birds Of Winter in the Skagit Valley, but we didn’t know there were so many fun activities until we started doing this every year. I did some research and found the Visit Skagit Valley website, which has extremely useful information and a beautifully created Birds & Brew self-guided tour.
http://www.visitskagitvalley.com/birding-skagit/
Our favorite route to follow is the Birds & Brew route, about a 2 hour journey from Seattle. A must stop location is the Upper Skagit Bald Eagle Interactive Center in Rockport, WA. The center is open on the weekends throughout the month of January for the Skagit Eagle Festival.
Once we arrived we were greeted by volunteers who told us the best places to spot eagles, which lead up to the Marblemount Fish Hatchery.
Eagles are most active in the morning and the afternoon. During the day they like to relax in the trees and sometimes not move for hours.
Unfortunately, as the years go on, eagle sightings and migration populations are growing more uncommon in this area. Local scientists are actively conducting studies to understand why this is happening. One hypothesis is that salmon aren’t swimming further up the Skagit river, even though it is an opportune habitat for the salmon. This lack of food might be hindering eagles from migrating to the Upper Skagit area.
After seeing 14 eagles, we headed along the Birds & Brew route down highway 20 towards Sedro Woolley. If you are in this area after noon, stop for a delicious ale at Birdsview Brewing Company, just about 2 miles after the city center of Concrete.
Our next destination was an hours drive to the Skagit Flats, which has been deemed a very important wildlife habitat by the Audubon Society. We arrived at the flats in the late afternoon and there wasn't a bird in sight. However, we ironically found the best place to see the birds this time of day was in the fields along the road on the way to the Skagit Flats. We left the designated wildlife area and drove back roads scouting for massive flocks of geese.
Hundreds of trumpet swans lined the fields, which are full of tulips in the spring. Once on the brink of extinction in the 1930’s, trumpet swans are now considered of least concern as healthy populations have been restored due to conservation efforts. These black billed trumpet swan are native to North America and migrate from Canada down to northern states in the United States.
Juvenile swans are grey in color and as they mature they develop white feathers.
Trumpet swans wingspan can reach up to 10 feet and they actually do sound like a trumpet!
We didn’t make it to other recommend birding areas, but when we go back we plan to check out Fidalgo Island and Nookachamps Basin.
There are so many other types of birds to see including snow geese, falcons, ducks, hawks, and occasionally owls, a true ornithologists (bird scientist) dream.
If you want to partake in a brew after all that birding head a short distance to the Farmstrong Brewing Company or the Skagit River Brewery in Mount Vernon.
I would highly recommend birding in the Skagit Valley. I mean it can’t get much better than watching wildlife in nature and enjoying beer along the way!
