Dear Tweeters,

Gene Hunn's post about a pond that looked like a mitigation wetland prompts me to write.

There is a wetland just outside Burliington (Skagit County) that has tremendous potential for birds. Unfortunately, WSDoT seems blissfully unaware of what makes for a good wetland, from a bird's or a birder's perspective.

Many of the mitigation ponds in Skagit County end up as cattail-choked areas that host a few ducks in the breeding season, maybe a Virginia Rail or two in winter, along with a few Marsh Wrens and Red-winged Blackbirds. This is nice in its way, but is a habitat type that we already have in abundance.

What we don't have much of are shallow, seasonal ponds that attract shorebirds. Even harder to find are such ponds where birders are welcomed, or even allowed, to park a car and look at the birds. Sometimes these ephemeral wetlands appear for a year or two, only to be altered. Sometimes they remain, but access is made difficult.

The wetland in question is on the north side of McCorquedale Road, just west of Sims Honda and just west of Burlington city limits. A few of us in Skagit County kept our eyes on it in July and August. We started calling it the McCorquedale Wetland. It's really part of the long, sinuous creek known as Gage's Slough, which connects to Gage's Lake just to the north (visible from Pulver Road). I believe the water drains into the Skagit via a pumping station just south of here, near the dike.

All during July and much of August, there was an astounding variety of birds there. Some of these included:

Wood Ducks;
several teal species including BWTE,
visiting raptors, including Merlin and Peregrine;
Killdeer, sometimes dozens at a time;
Semipalmated Plover;
breeding Spotted Sandpiper;
both Yellowlegs;
dozens of Long-billed Dowitchers;
all three peeps, in flocks of hundreds sometimes;
Pectoral Sandpipers in July and early August;
Red-necked Phalaropes.

I became aware of the place last November, but only birded it once or twice. It was basically a duck pond in winter. In July, a friend reminded me to go check on the place, and I did; the birding was fantastic.

Unfortunately, there are some Department of Transportation "no trespassing" signs nearby. To tell the truth, the angled placement of the signs is confusing--I really don't know if they apply to the huge pullout where I have been parking, or to the land to the east of there.

A few weeks ago, the WSDoT started working on the place again, although right now would have been prime time for Pectorals, Sharp-tails, and who knows what else. Heavy equipment has flattened the place and left just a rather sterile-looking rivulet flowing through the middle of the wetland. Only a few common birds such as Killdeer, American Crows, and Eurasian Starlings appear to be using the wetland now, because of the removal of vegetation and the continuing disturbance.

So here's the question: is there any history of WSDoT working up a mitigation wetland that birders might be able to visit? Might the agency be brought to understand that there are a lot of gas-buying, latte-purchasing birders who might visit here, spend some money, and in return ask only for a half-hour to park and look? Might the agency be made to realize that not everyone wants another cattail marsh?

Thanks for any ideas!

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch ? Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA ? garybletsch at yahoo.com ? ?

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