I made my first trip of the year up to the Skagit Valley yesterday.  It was our first really sunny day of the month, so I had to take full advantage.  One purpose of the trip was to check to see if the Tree Swallows have returned. They are just now arriving, so I will check back in a few weeks to see if their nest building has begun.  

I arrived at sunrise to try to capture the good light:

Ducks at sunrise I really liked the lighting on this Bald Eagle:

Bald Eagle at sunrise The Olympic Mountains at sunrise: Olympic Mountains at sunrise The back-lighting was really good for the water birds, so I worked on that task for a while:

Great Blue Heron at sunrise Great Blue Heron at sunrise Bufflehead Female Bufflehead Once the sun was up, I could start to work on other subjects. The harriers were having all sorts of fun flying over my head:

Northern Harrier In addition, I got to see a dark morph of the Rough-legged Hawk:

Rough-legged Hawk The air was so clear, and the light superb, so I decided to join the masses and capture a few images of the Snow Geese with Mount Baker as a backdrop.

Snow Geese in the Skagit Valley It was finally time to head home, but I decided to take the back roads instead of the highway.  I wanted to see if any Kestrel were hunting over the farm fields.  I found a Kestrel within minutes of my drive:

Kestrel It was a great day up in the Skagit.  I need to head back because there is so much more to see.