Where Padilla Bay is around 11 miles north of where I’m staying, Camano Island is around 11 miles south. Above are caspian terns seen at Iverson Spit Preserve on Camano Island.
Just a short distance from Iverson Spit, but on the other side of the island, is English Boom Preserve. It is seven acres of tidelands and shoreline that used to be part of a large log storage yard. On my first visit there, the sounds of an eagle drew my attention to the above nest. Excuse the poor quality, it was on a tall tree on a shaded hillside. I went back the next day to try and get better pictures. On arriving, the young eagle was sitting on one tree, about a block from the nest, and one of it’s parents was on the tree next to it. After a short time, the young one flew over to the parent’s tree. Shortly thereafter, the parent flew off, leaving the young one to sit for about an hour, intermittently crying out for its parent. Finally, the parent appeared near the nest and the young one flew back to the nest. The parent took off again, but this time the young one followed it out of sight.
Salt marsh at English Boom.
Right above English Boom is a small plane airport. Their runway is shown above. That’s it. If they don’t lift off by the end of the runway they will go over the cliff and go boom.
Camano Island is heavily developed, with public access to the coast limited. It is just from the work of some volunteers (Friends of Camano Island Parks) along with city, state, and federals agencies that have allowed some public preserves and parks to be developed. The above two parks are not advertised and there are no signs directing you to them. I got the directions from the Washington Audubon Society’s web site and their Washington Birding Trail Map.
Another site brought about with the help of the Friends of the Camano Island Parks is Davis Slough. The above two pictures of sandpipers (top) and lesser yellowlegs (bottom) were taken near there.
Update: Happened to stop at the same spot as above in the late afternoon and found a large flock of sandpipers. They must nest there for the night.
Update of my update: Read where the sandpipers are part of the fall migration along the Pacific Flyway.
I drove to Camano Island State Park to check it out. It is in a beautiful setting of tall trees with coastal access. The camp sites are no hookup, first come first served (Yes!).
