Skagit Wild Bird Supply General Manager Tia Melhus, didn’t always like birds. In fact, she only started paying attention to them after being laid off during 2020. For Melhus, the crisis of being suddenly at home a lot more became an opportunity to learn about the birds all around her.
“You start by noticing that first bird, and wondering and learning about it, then the next one and the next one, and it goes on from there.”
Melhus started off at Skagit Wild Bird Supply as a part-time employee eager to learn everything she could about her new passion. During that time the shop changed hands to its third and current owners, Ellen and Fred Klein, who asked her to step into the role of General Manager.
Photograph by Nicole Kimberling
Like Melhus, practically every person who comes into this venue is crazy about birds. So I had to ask: why birds?
“It’s such a healthy hobby to have,” Melhus replies. “They’re intelligent; they’re beautiful. Birds help us slow down and pay attention more. Realizing that there is so much more around us. At Skagit Wild Bird Supply we try to maintain a one-stop shop for people to be able to create a backyard oasis to support our local birds.”
And how is that best done?
Melhus replies, “The biggest thing is trying to cater to the birds that inhabit this specific area. To do that we order specific mixed seed from a company in Puyallup. Unlike seed you might get at a big box store, it has no filler, just the seed that we know the local birds love.”
Photograph by Nicole Kimberling
Supporting local birds is a big deal at the shop. Apart from bird seed, feeders, bird baths, and birdhouses of all architectural description, the shop has a wide array of pamphlets from the Audubon Society to the Skagit River Bald Eagle Interpretive Center.
And what, I asked, can be done to support our region’s most prominent avian—the symbol of our nation—which any person driving I-5 can see swooping majestically over the freshly tilled tulip fields every spring?
Melhus laughs. “There’s nothing we can do for eagles besides leave them alone. And maybe go learn more about them at the interpretive center.”
Photograph by Nicole Kimberling
My incipient fantasy of having a backyard bald eagle feeder quashed, I turn back to more achievable goals, inquiring about where a person who has noticed their first bird should begin.
“Come into the store and don’t be shy. Everybody starts off somewhere,” Melhus says. “We’re here because we are bird nerds and we enjoy what we do. We’re here to help them and chat about birds; [we] enjoy birds and fellow bird nerds. Always happy to give advice and help with each customer’s own situation.”
Photograph by Nicole Kimberling
“So what was your first bird?” I ask.
She smiles, “A western tanager. They’re red-yellow. Really pretty.”
I confess my first bird was a small woodpecker called the northern flicker and her expression brightens.
“Oh, they have an interesting super-long tongue. You should Google ‘where do flickers store their tongue?’ You’ll be surprised.”
Friends, she was not wrong. 17188 State Rte. 536, Mount Vernon, 360.424.5575
