This past weekend, my Chemistry Professor and I traveled to Camano Island on the Washington coast to attend the Port Susan S
now Goose Festival. We left Friday evening and traveled through Yakima, over Snoqualmie Pass. The pass was relatively clear, although we could see the lights for the night skiing and huge piles of plowed snow on the sides of the road.
In North Bend we stopped at the Salish Inn to have dinner in the Attic Lounge Restaurant, which overlooks the falls. The food there is DIVINE! I had a ceasar salad with shaved parmesan, hazelnuts, and a reduced red wine vinegar which was TO DIE for, followed by bay scallops, and a chocoloate mousse cake topped with strawberries (oh my goodness...). We ate leisurely for about 2 1/2 hours, while listing to a very talented singer/guitar player in the background. The lodge is very swanky and has a downstairs five star restaurant. On a previous trip we made an attempt to eat there...but were told they were full (there wasn't a full table in sight...) and were recommended the upstairs lounge, which is less formal. It was actually a lucky snub, because the view, ambiance, and food upstairs seems to be superior!
The lounge is composed of two rooms, one with a bar, and the other with the fireplace. The fireplace is a large (Uncle Terry - like) and is located on the wall adjacent to the windows that view the waterfall. The room is like a 1920s attic, with sophet-like nooks with small couches in front of dark cherry-trimmed dormer like windows on two walls. The room is cream, with a cherry floor, and black granite tables with wooden chairs. It was a nice break after cramming for tests all last week!
After dinner we traveled on to Arlington where we arrived at our hotel at about 1am. When we attempted to check in we found that the clerk who had just come on duty could not find the keys! We waited for about 15 minutes while he looked in every cupboard, drawer, etc. that he could find. Finally, I suggested that he use the master to let us in our room, and that we would get our keys in the morning! Good grief!
The next morning we headed to Stanwood (in the pouring rain and wind!) where the festival was headquartered in the old odd fellows hall. The hall was one of the coolest I have ever been in. The were six mural paintings on the walls in the upper room that were at least four by six feet! They were beautiful! There were about 12 vendors in the hall, selling everything from books to clothing to birdhouses to art. I got a hat that has a cartoon outline of a bird with glasses on holding a pair of binoculars and words "bird nerd" below it. We got instructions for birding locations, and then donned our rain gear and binoculars, and headed out into the storm!
The first place we went was called "the big ditch". The area consisted of a view tidal flats from a dyke. We had heard this was the best place to see snowy owls, but we didn't see any. We did spot about a dozen eagles though, some of which were busy eating recently killed ducks. The next place we headed was the standwood water treatment ponds. On the way we passed fields of swans and stopped to see if would could identify them. Two obliging swans (one tundra and one trumpeter) stood side by side and we were able to put the scope on them to compare and note the differences. Afterwards we continu
ed onto the sewage ponds, but before we got there, we happened upon a HUGE field of thousands of snow geese! We had planned to take a tour to see them later the next day, but we ended up having a personal view of the entire field for about 1/2 hour! We took lots of pictures and enjoyed watching them fly in and out.
The nature conservancy was the main tour of the trip, and we headed off at about 1pm. The rain finally let up a little, although the wind was whipping, and we spent about 2 hours walking another dyke on the nature conservancy property (which used to be a farm) and scanning the tidal flats. There were many ducks, and a few eagles that let us get really close, but no shore birds, or other typical coastal species. Although the bird list was a little lackluster, it was fun to have access to a usually closed property and find out when other tours during better birding months were available.
We ended the evening by attending a bar-b-que at the four springs reserve which is a 50 acre property that was donated by the owners to the county. A beautiful home overlooks a lake, and there is a large barn and many trails. The meal was ok, but the "highlight" of dinner was a string band that played crazy country songs and donned funny outfits. After dinner we went on an "owl prowl" - sort of. The first thing the leader said was that we had little to no chance to see anything! She also said she would not be playing tapes because it was the nesting season. Typically, owl prowls involve walking through the woods and making or playing owl songs to get a response while scanning trees with a powerful flashlight. This walk consisted of a 50 ft traipse into the middle of a field surrounded by trees, and then watching them scan 10 or so trees with the flashlight! A little disappointing. However, we did end the evening by visiting Brindles, a wine/clothes shop combined with a restaurant, and while my professor shopped, I had some delicious fish and chips. We traveled back to our hotel early, and after getting so wet and cold we slept really well that night!
The next day we checked out and them attended a presentation at the headquarters. A farmer, turned environmentalist, talked about his involvement with a professor who did research concerning Brandt geese. He gave a nice slide show and had beautiful pictures. He also brought his pet goose that could not be released into the wild, and let us get close.
After the presentation, we hit two more birding spots - one on the island called the "English Boom" where we didn't see anything but ducks, and then we drove to the second - Samish Flats about 20 minutes north on I-5. We looked in the farmers fields for a black bellied plover which would normally be found in flocks of dunlin. However, no dunlin were to be found! We drove all the way to Chuckinuk Dr., which follows the shoreline. It was absolutely beautiful! We had lunch at a little place call Oyster Creek that was on a hill above a gorgeous, rocky creek that cascaded down the ravine below. I had dungenous crab cakes, seafood chowder, and "death by chocolate," a dense dark chocolate torte. They were the BEST crab cakes I have ever had!
After we ate we headed back towards home - after an accidental little detour that send us to a little town overlooking the bay (where we birded at a little park, but only added a red-breasted merganser - a life bird for my professor - to our list), we headed back over the pass, and had dinner again at the Salish Inn (YUM!) and got in fairly late.
The trip was really relaxing even though the birding was a little slow. The highlights were definitely the snow geese, and just enjoying the beautiful scenery of the coast.
