On the farm, there is never a dull season. Winter, especially, serves up unexpected delights on the dorment land. You just have to watch and wait.

Snow Geese flock to our fields by the tens of thousands, flying in strings and waves across the sky. Swans, be they tundra, mute, or the rare and impressive trumpeter, stream into the flatlands, covering the green fields in a startling white. As I work on the farm, I can look up to see these huge white birds fill the sky as they move from the Sound inland each morning and back out to sea each night. It is an amazing site every single time.

The bald eagles, on the other hand, sit in the tops of tree and squabble with each other… extremely loudly. The Sister had to go outside, one afternoon, to yell at a pair who were disturbing her work. It didn’t really help.

The eagles move south from their Alaskan home to take advantage of the leftovers from the fall salmon runs. I once counted 202 white-headed raptors on a day trip up the Skagit Valley. Yes, that’s 202 American Bald Eagles in an 8-hour time span. One 90-foot tree alone held nearly 75 of them, just hanging out.

By spring, they have almost all but disappeared. A few straggling Snow Geese flocks grace our tulip fields, showing off for the tourists, but they are soon gone, travelling back to Wrangell Island in Alaska. Next winter, they’ll be back, gracing our skies and fields once more.

…and people wonder why I live out here.