Okay, where are the bats?

I"ve been taking walks every night now for a week, looking up the sky in the hopes of seeng that familiar flitter, not straight like a bird, but more cirque du solei. Bats. I love seeing them do their acrobatics in the heat blasted summer sky, just barely cooling off as darkness descends. But this year, on Kent's Scenic Hill, they seem to gone?

According to Bat Conservation International, there seems to be a white nose syndrome that is hitting their population in the US very hard.

Sea Cuke. Who came up with this name?

Was prowling around Des Moines Beach in my Beach Naturalist role on Sunday - yes skipping church, but I figure it's for a good cause, protecting God's creatures - and came upon these fanlike creatures on the jetty near the end of the beach.

They were sea cucumbers, doing their feeding bit. Usually, when I see them out of the water ,they have a bit of a phallic look about them. But here, they were absolutely gorgeous. Also, finally found a Moon Snail, oozing away. She wasn't too happy when I pried her up to show her to visitors. But I made sure she was safely buried in the sand so the gulls or crabs couldn't find her.

Finally came the dungeness crab, who was a bit worse for wear, but had enough spunk to tell me to keep back. We covered her with seaweed too, for the same reason. The gulls and crows follow us around the beach for an easy lunch, so we have to hide our finds again.

Bohemian Waxwing? I think so.

I was walking the dog this am (before the storm blew in, as it's doing right now) and looked up, seeing a crested bird that seemed greyish with red and black tips. I think it was a pair, or three actually, Bohemian Waxwings.

However, the Seattle Audubon page said that it could be another type of waxwing that was orange. But these birds weren't orange, or rust, (Cedar Waxwings) they were definitely gray. I could tell that, even tho they were silhouetted on the telephone lines.

Anyone else seen them around Kent?

Picture courtesy of Seattle Audubon.

Finds on the beach

I'll be heading out there this weekend, either Saturday or Sunday, but here are the finds from about two weeks ago, including a hairy chiton (I don't think it's a mossy, I always get those confused), a sea lemon and a tunicate (don't know if it's invasive or not, just orange and slimey).

The scale of this chiton is a bit lost in this photo, but it was about three to four inches long, which is big for these guys. They can live to be 100 years old or more.

More bees

As I was visiting my mom in Everett this weekend, I was looking up at the beams over her front porch, and noticed one bubble bee. Then about 5, all coming out of one hole drilled into her siding up there.

Great. I told her, yeah, she should have it looked into, although the bubbles seem to be going right to her rhodies on the side. Is there any way of removing these bees without killing them?

This picture was taken in Washington DC by the by, by an associated press photog. I took it off the PI's website.

Low-tide finds

These great pictures were taken by Peter Haley at The News Tribune. They are on the top of the photographer's blog if you want a better look. Here is his story on how he got the shot (which was at a Pierce County beach, not one up here, but you can find the same sort of critters).

Linda Perez, visiting from California, pauses during some clam digging at Kopachuck State Park.

When shooting low tide photos last week my thinking was that I want to get close to some interesting critter, but still show the whole place and some people. The usual technique is to use a very wide lens with a small aperture for great depth of field (great depth of field means that the foreground stuff is in focus, and so is the background stuff).

I also noticed the nice reflections in areas where the beach is fully wet, and that these reflections are maximized when the camera is very low, whether shooting with a wide lens or not.

The Nikon D2H that I use is a big SLR-- a big single lens reflex camera. Big enough that one can't get the lens really close to the ground. I can get the lens closest to the ground when holding the camera upside down and use what is ordinarily the vertical shutter release-- something that the pro cameras have.

So that's what I did. Using a 14mm (the widest lens that is commonly available) and holding the camera upside down, I shot hail-mary style with the camera close to an old crab. I had hoped the crab would hold up his claws in a defensive position, but he wasn't moving much, so I only had to watch the woman and try to catch a good moment of her activity.

Me again:
I have found geoducks at Des Moines beach, and also some very angry crabs (don't want to get pinched by the red rock crabs, it hurts). It's also fun to watch them slowly disappear in the mud, trying to wait until the next tide covers them up.

The moles have it

Last week, the tell tail sign that moles were coming to visit appeared in our front yard, a bee -line, if you will, from our neighbor's yard.

Gary was incensed. What did we do to deserve this. Jennifer and I tried to convince him that this was a good thing, that moles only show up when there is something to eat, like worms.

But he wanted them gone, so he poured water down the holes. Didn't work. More mounds of dirt showed up the next day. Then he drove the truck over the mounds (I surmised this when I came home to wheel tracks all over the front yard. Didn't work. Now there are twice as many.

I think the moles are laughing. Now as I pointed out in an earlier post. Male predator urine. Should do the trick.

Yet our daughter is horrified by the thought of G. piddling in the front yard. Doing his business in a cup and pouring it down the holes doesn't go over too well either.

Of course, Gary could make peace with the moles, as this guy has. And for those of you that haven't found this site yet, check out the daily mammal. Here's a post on moles.

If you can, hit the beaches Wednesday and Thursday

My friend and former colleague from The News Tribune called me up Monday, asking if any Beach Naturalist events were planned with school kids this week, which will see some of the lowest tides on the beach in 25 years or so. I didn't have a calendar, and I hadn't volunteered (tho I'm sure there will be some of us out there.)

But true to form, Susan Gordon came up with a good story anyway. So if you can play hooky tomorrow and unf. I can't, take a gander at a starfish or moonsnail for me!!!

Photos by Steve Ringman of the Seattle Times.(I'll post my own from this weekend tonight!)

Also, fyi, we're looking at a rock crab (unhappy at that), a sea cuke, and of course, a moon snail.

A Bittern?

I think so.

As I was swinging around from Peasley Canyon, on to Highway 18, I looked up to see a small brown-looking bird, flying with its feet kicked back, sort of like a heron. But it was small and mottled-brown colored.

The crows were already on its ass, chasing it away. I was thinking, what a baby heron? But brown? So I browsed the Audubon filed and came up with this picture. What do you think?

Warning: Goose crossing

Driving into work today from Kent, I spotted a momma canadian goose, walking behind two fluffy chicks (maybe have been more in the grass). They were at the offramp of the truck stop -not right by the freeway - just south of the 320th Street Exit. I just hope she doesn't waddle further east but stays in the bushes. Of course, these photos are not of said momma, and came from National Geographic, not moi.

On highway 18, coming home from Wal Mart in Federal Way, stopped a goldfinch, perched on the freeway overpass. Of course, didn't have my camera to catch its yellow and black markings.

Hit the Beach!

At least when we're there.

The Beach Naturalist program kicked off today, so when the alarm rang at 7:30 am, I actually hopped out of bed, tossed on my jogging clothes and was off to Des Moines Beach. Not many people, other than fellow beach naturalists, due to the weather.

But we found some neat stuff, including key hole limpets, snacking on something, we couldn't figure out what, ochre starfish, some pretty beat up moon snails (I think chewed on by crabs or dropped by birds), and some of the largest mossy chitons I've ever seen.

The chitons have to be about 100 years old.

Anyway, here's an article about us, and check out our schedule at the Seattle Aquarium Web site. I wish I could say I took this picture, but I didn't. Here's the info below from the Seattle Post Intelligencer Web site.

*Photographer:* Anne Julson, Marysville *Photo taken:* May 8, Edmonds
waterfront *Photographer's description:* "I came upon many of these sun starfish
during an extreme low tide. I was fascinated by the patterns they made as they
moved around the sand. I have made several attempts to see these before, and
this time the low tide was finally low enough. I used my Canon EOS Rebel
XTi."

Check out theses pictures sent by readers that the PI posts every day. They are spectacular.