Wild Fidalgo

Last Friday, January 30, I was in the Kukutali Preserve .  I hiked out to the south beach off Flagstaff Point.  Because it is a fragile ecosystem, the point itself is off-limits to visitors, but access to the beach is permitted.  I was there to see if the resident Oystercatchers were around, but not on this day.  Instead, I encountered a pair of Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia) exhibiting some odd behavior. The two birds were positioned about six feet (2 meters) apart.  The one on the shore was swelled up with neck tucked in looking rather like Jabba the Hutt ("heh-heh-heh").  He was flipping his wings up, first the left one, then the right. This was the object of his attention, a second Song Sparrow on the beach perched on driftwood.  At first, I thought I was witnessing courtship.  Although January seemed a bit early for that, it was a very spring-like morning.  This entire winter has been warmer than usual. When I got home...

December 1 is the meteorological beginning of winter.  In northern latitudes, winter is the season of cold, stillness and darkness, when much of nature seems to die.  True to form, ours has come with subfreezing temperatures and even some snow in places.  In the north Puget Sound area, we have been getting clear skies and bright sunshine along with the cold temperatures. For some reason, I love hiking in cold weather.  With a day off work and a beautiful day, I headed over to the Kukutali Preserve to check out the wildlife.  I didn't get much past the parking lot before spotting this Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) enjoying the fruits of a Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) .  This tree is a native of Europe that has become naturalized in the Pacific Northwest. As I mentioned, our overnight temperatures have dropped below freezing.  It was about 26° F (-3° C) when I left home.  A skim of ice had formed on the surface of...

We have been getting January weather for the past couple of weeks.  Sub-freezing temperatures, blue skies and sunshine are typical for early January.  This is not typical for November which is usually our rainiest month.  Days on end of blue skies and sunshine in November is simply weird.  Local wildlife is also looking a lot like January. The breeding range of the Golden-crowned Sparrow   (Zonotrichia atricapilla) is British Columbia, the southern Yukon and western and southern Alaska.  Then they spend the winter in southwestern B.C., along the western US coast to northern Baja California.  They are regular visitors to my feeders at this time of the year.  They are fond of safflower seed. I spotted this bird yesterday in the Kukutali Preserve patrolling the south beach near Flagstaff Island.  Green stains on the beak reveal finding something good to eat there.  This is the bird's winter plumage.  In the breeding season,...

Imagine a place, a small island perhaps, where much of the wildlife of a region can be found.  What would it be like to experience a dozen or more wildlife encounters in just a couple hours of exploring?  Such a microcosm of the Pacific Northwest exists and it's a stone's throw from where I live.  You can literally walk a mile and find forest, wetland, beaches, tide pools, driftwood fields, salt marsh, rocky balds, grass meadows and a pocket estuary.  It also happens to be a significant Native American cultural site.  All of these things can be found in a 96 acre/39 hectare preserve just waiting to be explored. The Kukutali Preserve opened June 16th, 2014.  Over the past three months I have made several visits.  During this short time and in this small site, I have acquired an amazing collection of wildlife sightings and photographs.  To reveal what an amazing place this is, I decided to post them all at once. Along the Road From the par...