Hi Tweets,

Yesterday I received an eBird alert for a checklist that originated out of an area above Sultan that I was unfamiliar with. Nothing in the checklist comments or details indicated that this was a closed area. Having time on my hands yesterday afternoon, I drove up there to bird the clearcut. There is one parking spot on the outside of the gate. There were several signs that I noticed, including the usual "Don't block the gate" sign. After making sure my car was neither blocking the gate nor an adjacent home, I walked around the gate with my eyes down. I missed a sign from the Snohomish County PUD stating that a COVID19 closure was in effect and the public is banned from the property until further notice. The clearcuts and woods are DNR property and are closed by virtue of the Governor's order. The road is a PUD easement that goes to its Sultan River power station. The ten employees assigned to the station, as well as delivery trucks, use the road. The power station is a 24/7 operation. Under pre-COVID19 conditions, the gate was almost always open and the public was welcome to engage in recreation. Not now.

I walked the road for a while, still wondering who owned the property, when I encountered a PUD employee. He stopped his vehicle to talk and explained the ownership and closure to me. He was very nice about it and I assured him I would not have entered had I known there was a closure in effect. He said they would take a look at their sign placement with an eye to making it more visible. But please don't chase birds into these closed areas. If you are an eBirder, either make your checklist private, or state clearly in your checklist comments that you were in a restricted area. That allows the rest of us to make prudent choices about which birds we will chase and where. eBirders need to understand that many others receive their checklists through hourly or daily needs alerts unless they opt out of participating in the alerts.

I don't care who goes birding and how often they go birding during the pandemic. Much of what we do falls within the Governor's exception for exercise and we can continue birding in compliance with physical distancing guidelines. In my personal opinion, it is a lot safer than going to Costco, Home Depot, or Safeway. That said, in order to protect the reputation of all in the birding community, for now we all need to honor the land closures that are posted during this pandemic.

Carol Riddell
Edmonds, WA