<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp511f0ba5yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:bookman old style, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px;"><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Dear Tweeters,</div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">A birding friend of mine recently asked me to post something to Tweeters, in regard to Channel Drive. Here goes.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Channel Drive can host impressive flocks of shorebirds at time, but birding there is "hit or miss." A good strategy is to drive slowly, birding as one heads north, after the western terminus of Downey Road. Park at the end of the county road, and spend time carefully checking the Swinomish Channel itself, the various tidal wetlands, and the agricultural and waste ground along the road. There are times when it is very slow birding, and other times when all sorts of good birds show up. It is just a matter of putting in one's time, visiting again and again. The tide there is unpredictable, since it is at least partly under the control of man-made sluicegates. <br></div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">There used to be much more habitat along Channel Drive, but the last few pieces of undeveloped land along the channel have been displaced by yet more McMansions. Therefore, the car-birding part of a visit here has become less and less interesting. I doubt whether anyone else will find a Burrowing Owl along Channel Drive, as someone did back in 2003.</div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Private property abounds here. Birders are at the mercy of landowners who control access to nearly all of the land along the sloughs, where the shorebirds can be seen. A birder whom I know slightly lives on Channel Drive, and he once told me that one of the major landowners made it clear that she did not want anyone, not even her neighbor the birder, entering her vast acreages for any reason. That said, Channel Drive is one of those places where the locals routinely walk their dogs and ride their bikes right past the "no-trespassing signs." I have had pleasant and hospitable conversations with some of those locals, as well as a few icy glares. It would be a shame to lose what little access is available to us at Channel Drive, so it would behoove birders to act accordingly.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Yours truly,</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Gary Bletsch</div></div></body></html>