Category: Beyond the Olympic Peninsula

Away from home: The Porter cabin

This little cabin is located next to the Skagit River in a park in Rockport. It was built in the late 1800s by Tom Porter, a settler who filed a timber claim on the river; the cabin says a lot about “simpler times.”

Porter felled two large cedar trees by hand with a friend and built the cabin. In 1891 he married Mima Kerr and over time six Porter children were born in the cabin. In 1897 a flood forced the family to spend three days in the cabin’s loft as the river flowed through below. One son died in the cabin, as did Mima who died with the birth of their seventh child.

The cabin was built without nails or pegs. You can see dovetail notching that secured its corners. It was insulated with moss, clay, and newspaper. Heat came from a wood fired cook stove.

Away from home: The River

A friend asked why I haven’t shown more photos of the Skagit River. Simple reason is that I didn’t take too many. Those low clouds you see? It was wet. When I wasn’t training my camera on eagles I was wiping my camera off, trying to keep it dry. Its snazzy new rain hood had its limits. Eventually my own rain hood showered into my face and I couldn’t keep my glasses dry. Then there was the simple matter of a few very dumb photography lessons I learned the hard way.

There were very heavy rains in the region last November with flooding that washed out a section of the nearby road. In many spots the river had scoured the banks and trees were partially submerged in the river. It had a good flow when we were there and the water ran deep and green.

Away from home: Eagle watching

The Skagit River area is the nexus for North America’s largest eagle migration. While they are resident in western Washington year round, eagle numbers swell as migrants head south from Alaska and feed on salmon runs in the Skagit River. Our three hour trip on the Skagit River promised a front row seat on this exciting spectacle.

Okay. It wasn’t a great spectacle, though we saw a lot of eagles…perched, like this one, along the river’s edge. We learned a lot about the migration and eagles. The real peak is in December when the salmon run is greater (and I had jury duty) and eagles leave their perches for quick meals from the river.

The river was beautiful. The open drift boat had heaters. And occasionally it stopped raining. I’d do it again but I’ll just say this time it was challenging.

Away from home: Skagit River

One of the chief reasons we went on a winter birding trip to the Skagit Valley was to take a trip on the Skagit River to view migrating eagles. We knew weather in January was likely to be, well, weather in January. In Washington state that usually includes precipitation. And it did. We were glad it wasn’t snow. We arrived early and, uhm, enjoyed this view from the car.

Lest you think all was lost, the river was beautiful.

Away from home: Great blue herons

We have great blue herons in Sequim but I was tickled with several unobstructed views that I had on our recent visit to the Skagit Valley. This fellow was perched in a tree; by the time I caught him in my lens he’d taken off directly overhead.

This one gave me a rather pleasing vanity shot.

Oh, those feathers! Great blue herons are really beautiful birds, aren’t they?

Away from home: Skagit swans 3

One of the most impressive views of the Skagit Valley migrating birds are the great masses of them when a flock takes flight. Camera in hand, I only caught a few here and there. The best I managed was here.

However many are in the air I find swans beautiful and elegant and often their wing movements synchronize as they fly.

They’re beautiful to see.

Interestingly, even in the middle of a flock swans take off and land without bumbling into one another.