BAY VIEW — A small group gathered in heavy rain Friday morning at the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve for a class on birding.

“This is really, really surprising,” Fall Birding by Ear class lead Libby Mills said to the group. “You’re all a bunch of Northwesterners.”

The group was made up of avid birders from Mount Vernon, Bellingham and British Columbia.

“I wasn’t really into birds until the pandemic,” class attendee Anita Ordoñez said. “I looked around and thought, ‘Where did all these birds come from? Have they always been here?’”

Unfortunately for the dozen amateur bird watchers, the rain drowned out most of the chirps. But plenty of birds could still be seen.

The rain didn’t stop Mills from doing various owl impressions and a spot-on impression of a long-tailed duck.

Robins, sparrows, a couple of geese and an eagle were all easily spotted.

The group even spotted a rare leucistic robin, which is mostly white because pigment is prevented from reaching all of some of the bird’s feathers.

“That was worth the price of admission,” Mills said jokingly of the free class.