Baldie Finds A Helper, or Two

I wonder if this was the eagle that Gary spotted near Kent.

He probably ended up at the Sarvey Wildlife Rescue Center in Arlington. It's good organization to support BTW.

Tunicate Invasion

Now I'm wondering that all those pretty orange drippy things that I showed school kids on the beach last summer, were in fact, invaders.

This story by Susan Gordon at the TNT talks about the invasion of a tunicate species that seems to act like an aquatic version of The Blob.

I'll have to keep a sharp eye out this summer and report this out for someone to sprinkle salad dressing on it (read the story for this to make sense).

Photo from The News Tribune

Baldies, Bunnies and Bumbles

In reverse order.

As I'm watching it snow tonight, and rejoicing I'm finally seeing some of this white stuff, my daughter reminds me that this may mean the end of the bubble bees I saw earlier this week.

"See mom, it probably killed the bumble bees! Now how do you feel about it!" end quote.

Okay, if it killed the bumbles, I hate the snow. (well, sort of.) - she just read this last comment and slugged me.

Could this be another local hit on the wildlife due to global warming (in reverse)? (I took this picture of a bumble napping in a daffodil the day before this snow)

On to baldies. My hubby saw a bald eagle near the wildlife area off of the East Valley Highway near the rock shop.

And finally bunnies. It was about this time a few years ago that the neighborhood cat was stalking something. And that something was screaming, literally. So I went over to investigate. It was a terrified baby rabbit that Fat Millie (the cat) hat trapped against a azalea bush. We rescued the bunny, which Jennifer wanted to make a pet.

But we convinced her said bunny probably wouldn't survive and to release it with its fellow bunnies in the Scenic Hill Cemetery, which we did. Now I doubt this species of rabbit is endangered, but there are some, oddly, which are stuggling for survival according to this article, and this one. (which is about the pygmy rabbits in Spokane.)

I Miss The Old Swimming Pool

That used to be in our neighbor's back yard.

Each year at this time, the frogs would hatch, and we'd hear their unabashed chorus of spring. A few years they filled in the pool, and no more frogs. This story reminded me of their lost paean.

This May Explain the Robins in February

Walking the dog last month, I looked up as I took my usual route through my Kent neighborhood, and looked up at a tree, still bare of leaves. But in it were about a dozen robins, looking back.

I was startled not only by the size of the flock, but that they were there at all. And then the trees. Even my daughter noticed. One day, the trees were in bud or seemingly bare, and the next, full extravagant bloom. In early March.

This great story explains what I'm seeing, I think. While we might think of global warming only affecting the polar bears (file that under it sucks to be you), it in fact affects everything. Including birds that hatch too early, only to starve because the insects aren't out; same goes for the butterflies in Virginia, or other carnivores up the food chain. And as this blog post notes, global warming-or cooling, whatever the cause, will affect us.

It was followed up a day later by this story in the PI.

Photo by Jennifer Conner

When Faced With Mortal Danger, Clone Yourself

Every year as a Beach Naturalist volunteer, I'm telling people to drop the shells, in many cases, sand dollars and don't take them off the beach. I tell them that a. if they are darkish brown/purple, they may still be alive - and you'll be killing them. Or if they have already died, the calcium in their shells is needed by the environment in the circle-of-life thing.

Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't. But the more cool facts I let them know about the creatures, they more likely they are to put them back (aside, from the fact it's illegal to take shells out of a city park in the first place.).

So add this one cool fact, reported by Sandi Doughton of the Seattle Times, about sand dollars. When threatened as a larvae (in the living soup that is Puget Sound) they clone themselve before being gobbled up.

Photo by the Seattle Times

As the Salmon go, So go the Smelt?

Apparently so, according to this article in The News Tribune recently. It really bothers me when the bottom of the food chain fish begin to die off. It doesn't bode well on up the line.

Photo from The News Tribune

More Meetings Coming up on Puget Sound Partnership

Got pinged from the Beach Naturalists today on these upcoming meetings.

The Puget Sound Partnership Needs Your Input By March 21

The Puget Sound Partnership will develop an Action Agenda by September 2008 that establishes science-based goals, enchmarks and actions to achieve recovery and protection of Puget Sound by 2020. Your input on what should be included in the Action Agenda is essential to ensure the Partnership develops a bold plan for the Sound. If you were unable to attend one of the community conversations held in late February and early March, please submit your comments on the questions below via People For Puget Sound at http://www.pugetsound.org/primary/act/action/forms/psp_feedback.

People for Puget Sound will deliver your comment sheet to the Partnership by
March 21.

Please answer the questions below for each of the
following topic/issue: biodiversity/species, habitat/land use, water quality,
water quantity, and quality of life/human health. Speaking points for your
convenience are listed on People for Puget Sound’s website at: http://www.pugetsound.org/primary/act/action/puget-sound-partnership/FebMarpubmtgs .

Which topic/issue is most applicable to your Action Area?
What are the known threats to the topic/issues in your Action Area ?
Where are the threats coming from in your Action Area?
What are the potential actions the Action Agenda needs to include to remedy the threats and problems in your Action Area?

Volunteer at the Seattle Green Festival on April 12-13, 2008

Be a part of helping put on an amazing two day event that will educate and
activate people to make choices for a just and sustainable world! Volunteers receive free admission to the event all weekend, an exclusive organic and sweatshop-free Green Festival t-shirt, optional free one-year membership to Global Exchange and Co-op America, and a 10% discount the Global Exchange Store at Green Festivals!

The Green Festival is a 2-day event co-produced by Global Exchange and Co-op America committed to the movement towards a just and sustainable society. The festival features:

Over 300 Socially and Environmentally Responsible Enterprises * Community Groups * Over 150 leading Speakers * Organic Food Court *Local Music * Great how-to workshops * Green films * Green home sessions * Organic beer and wine * Delicious organic cuisine and live music * And thousands of attendees who want to build a just and sustainable world and have opportunities to learn, be inspired, get
active, & have fun!

To volunteer: www.greenfestivals.org/volunteer
Contact: volunteer@greenfestivals.org

An Online Look at the Birds

And the other prints of Audubon, have been gathered online for a look. It's a nice browse.

More Crap Washing Up on the Beach

I'm preparing to head out to the beaches this summer (training sessions soon) with my fellow Beach Naturalists, and I happen to come across this article.

Poison. My daughter already gets on my case for picking up every bit of trash I see on the beach (calls me the bag lady), but I can't help it . I've seen how this stuff kills. However, maybe I should bring some gloves, just in case.


Photo from the Seattle Times

Goodbye Trout, Goodbye to An Era

That's what I started to think as I walked around the Springbrook Trout Farm in Renton last weekend.

I was up there to do a story for a local magazine on the farm's opening day. But the "closed" signs everywhere gave me pause. So I called up the owner, Jerry, who said we're closed. Okay, when are you going to open?

"No, we're closed period," he said, although he added later in the conversation he may reopen the 50-year-old trout farm next year if he can't sell the place or can get a permit for an espresso stand.

Jerry bought the farm from the original family that ran it three years ago, but it's been a money losing proposition. People often stole the trout versus pay the $5 per fish fee, and the local wildlife thought Jerry was their version of the Easter bunny. Bald eagles, blue heron, osprey and a family of otters were coming up each night to feast (along with raccoons and opossum).

If this is truly it for Springbrook, it's the end of an age. A decade ago, there about a dozen farms of this ilk in King County, now there is just his. Most closed due to development pressures, or nearby houses fouling the streams that led into the ponds, and killing the fish.

The pressure is certainly evident at Springbrook, where condos have marched up to the property's front door, and just up the street is Valley Medical Center. But if you step inside the boundaries, it's like 40 years falls away, and you come back to a time where you could grab a pole and give a try at many of these small ponds around King County.

Photo by Jennifer Conner

So how do bats hover in midair?

This BBC article gives an idea of that question.

More News on What's Going on Beneath the Surface

This article from Hawaii, true, but since we do have trawlers coming out of this area, I think it's pertinent.

Really, there has to be a better way to get fish.

Falcons to the South, Snow Geese to the North

The snow geese are in the Skagit Valley, and for those that want to go south, this article highlighted the raptors in the Nisqually reserve.

Picture courtesy of the Seattle Times.