Wild Fidalgo

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...

Attention bibliophiles, logophiles, linguaphiles, physisaphiles and especially aviphiles.  I just found a book that may satisfy all of your obsessions in one package. I have always been interested in language and words.  When I was in school, I took an odd little nerdy course called Latin and Greek in Current Use.  It looked at the etymologies of English words derived from the classical languages.  It turned out to be useful studying for a career in health care (bradycardia = slow heart). Some English words have the same etymological meanings, but different connotations.  Examples are synchronous (Greek) and contemporary (Latin).  Once in a while it is possible to deduce the meaning of an unfamiliar word if you know the meaning of its roots.  Ever since I took this course, I have found myself wondering about words and their origins. Now move ahead more than thirty years.  I love exploring the natural world in my neighborhood and bloggin...

Three years ago, my neighbor sent me a photo of a Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) in his yard.  It has taken them three years to make it the quarter-mile or so to mine.  I now see this pair hanging out in my yard every day.  They appear to be attracted by the feeders. This world-traveling species has an interesting story.  Their original homeland is south Asia, India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, according to iBird .  During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they spread across Europe and eastward to into China.  By 1953, they had reached Britain .  Then in 1974, they were introduced into the Bahamas.  By the mid eighties, they were seen in Florida.  Since then, they have colonized most of the U.S ., also reaching southern Canada and northern Mexico.  South Fidalgo Island now appears to be part of their range. They are extremely shy.  If I get anywhere near the front yard, they escape to the big firs.  I...

Uncle Robin, that's me!  An American Robin (Turdus migratorius)  picked the fuchsia basket on my entry porch to build her nest.  Needless to say, this has made watering and picking off old blooms a bit complicated.  I am basically banished from the porch. The fuchsia needs to be watered two or three times a week.  The method is to peek out and find a moment when the parent is not there.  Then quickly go out and water around the sides of the nest before dashing into the house again.  I've given up on picking off the old blooms to keep it flowering.  The birds are more interesting anyway. When she was sitting on eggs, she rarely left the nest.  Now she has three little mouths to feed and this is keeping her busy from dawn to dusk.  While she's out foraging, I get a chance to go out and water. Dad might be helping out with the feeding.  With the poor lighting, it's hard to tell, but that could be Mom in the first photo, Da...