[Tweeters] Channel Drive? Tides?

Scott Ramos via Tweeters tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sat Aug 10 11:31:38 PDT 2024


Jim,
We were at Channel Drive yesterday mid-afternoon with about a 3 ft tide (at
La Conner). There was plenty of mud exposed in the Swinomish Slough but
none in the 'small slough' you refer to. It appears that the culverts that
link the two are at such a height that the small slough never drains enough
to expose much mode, even when the tide is out. However, it is shallow
enough for many of the waders to forage near the edges.
Nevertheless, we had only a handful of shorebirds. Both yellowlegs were in
both sloughs, a small flock of Least Sandpiper flew around the small slough
looking for mud, and Killdeer and Spotted Sandpiper were in the mud on the
Swinomish side. Maybe a little early still for a larger diversity of
shorebirds.
Scott Ramos
Seattle


On Sat, Aug 10, 2024 at 10:44 AM Jim Betz via Tweeters <
tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:


> Hello all,

>

> There's a birding location here in Skagit County known as Channel

> Drive. It is where a

>

> small slough joins the Swinomish Slough and is about half way between

> the bridges and

>

> La Conner.

>

> I've been going here a -lot- in the past few weeks. Sometimes

> birdier than other times

>

> but always 'enough to be interesting'. Well - that didn't pan out

> yesterday ... I saw just

>

> one GBH and zero shorebirds. The tide was 'slack' but at a medium level

> (not minus)

>

> but there was some mud flat areas in the sloughs. I'm guessing that the

> shorebirds

>

> were probably out on the nearby but larger Padilla Bay areas. I just

> found it "interesting"

>

> and worthy of being reported.

>

>

> The state of the tide seems to be much more important than -I- think

> it should be.

>

> There was plenty of 'shallow water' yesterday ... just not so much "mud

> flats" and not as

>

> shallow as in the past 4+ weeks. However, the shorebirds I've been

> seeing at Channel Drive

>

> (sandpipers, yellowlegs, dowitchers, and even a few phaloropes) do not

> hunt on the actual

>

> mud flats ... just in the shallow water near the exposed mud.

>

> I checked the tides for the next week or so - pretty 'small' (not any

> minus and not very

>

> high highs). That, combined with the fact that it is mid-August doesn't

> bode well for my

>

> birding opportunities in the coming weeks.

> *Sigh*. - Jim

>

>

> P.S. BTW - I made my new camera plus lens decisions. I'm going with the

> R5-II and the

>

> RF 200-800. This zoom is bigger and heavier than I'm 'happy'

> with ... but I expect

>

> it to solve the primary problem I deal with almost every time I

> go out - how far

>

> away the birds are from me. I'm -hoping- I can use it handheld

> ... if not I don't

>

> know if I will get a tripod and gimbal or sell it and see if the

> 100-500 will work.

>

>

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>

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