Yesterday I took some friends to the Skagit area to enjoy the geese,
swans, etc. When we located a large goose flock, a couple of us got out
of the car; my visiting Japanese colleague wanted to get some photos.
Along came a warden from the state Game Dept. (don't know the proper
designation) who showed his badge and warned us that if we stayed in the
car the geese would not be bothered but merely getting out of the car was
in itself an act of harassing the geese, with the obvious implication that
we could be fined for doing so. He gave us the spiel about how the geese
were storing up fat and this is an important time for them, and I told him
I know about the geese, that I'm a birdwatcher. That didn't mollify him
at all, and he said they've had some of their worst problems with
birdwatchers, who sometimes try to walk out into the fields to get close
for better pictures or try flush the geese to get photos of the birds in
flight. (Maybe I should have said I'm a biologist, but he probably would
have said I should know better than to harass the birds.) Anyway, I
thought I should pass on warning about what constitutes harassment--and
the word that birders aren't very popular with the officials.

On a second note, I was very surprised by the general lack of ducks.
During other winters, I've seen ducks in just about every little puddle
in a field, and Padilla Bay has often been full of them. We only found
one large flock of Mallards, Pintails, and a few Wigeons. Did we just go
to the wrong places, or are the numbers way down?

We did have a peregrine near the West 90 hunting Dunlin. Generally a
fine day to be out.

Burt Guttman guttmanb at elwha.evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College Voice: 360-866-6000, x. 6755
Olympia, WA 98505 FAX: 360-866-6794

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