Posted June 12, 2011 from Seattle, WA In a feature story by Marilyn Geewax, NPR's Morning Edition again covered the rising-price-of-food story while barely mentioning ethanol. Geewax pegged the story on the weird weather that has diminished prospects for the US crop this year, quoting USDA economist...
Posted June 1: updated June 9, 2011 [caption id="attachment_854" align="alignleft" width="400"] Western Tanager, photo by Ed Newbold. Western Tanager is one of many North American birds that are to some degree dependent on shade coffee plantations.[/caption] Saving Birds like this has now become almost as easy as shooting...
Posted May 25, 2011 updated May 26 with Lazuli Bunting, et al sightings It’s a paradox of photography and Photoshop software that a gloomy spring can result in some very bright shots. Delia and I have been birding around Washington state lately and we’ve had to retreat at...
May 8, 2011 Weather in Western Washington has been abnormally cold, windy and rainy and that has bottled up the bird migration. The result to this casual observer seems to be that birds are seemingly trying to decide when to move on an almost individual basis. Our...
May 7, 2011 In a story covering the release of a study linking higher food prices with global climate change, NPR failed to add any reference to that other huge vector force driving food prices up: biofuel mandates in the US and Europe. A list of...
posted April 28, 2011 Updated May 11, 2011 [caption id="attachment_760" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Photo from Leavenworth area by Janet Millard"][/caption] Here's an idea: Visit beautiful Leavenworth, Washington for the Leavenworth Spring Bird Fest on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday May 12, 13, 14 and 15. Here is the link: http://www.leavenworthspringbirdfest.com/ARTS.HTM As part...
April 22, 2011 Susan, my print rep from Olympus Press in SeaTac, WA, holds up a press proof in the final minutes before we give the go-ahead for the my spring 2011 printing. Susan’s been my print rep for 21 years. Kone and Jason operated the press...
April 17, 2011, Seattle, WA. We just got back from a week in the bootheel of New Mexico, where we were visiting Delia’s folks. It was a change from Seattle, with hot and dry being words that come to mind. This is looking at the Chiricahua Mountains...
March 30, 2011 updated March 31, 2011 This morning it was so windy and upleasant, I forgot to turn on Butyl Creek, our 8 ft. backyard artificial creek that Delia named for the Butyl it’s made out of. I didn’t even look in the backyard till 3:15...
March 26, 2011 Delia and I made a mid-afternoon visit to Lincoln Park today. This Hutton's Vireo was very accomodating, foraging very low and close and at one point bashing some poor insect to death before eating it. We met Brian and Susan Pendleton at the Park and that...
March 26, 2011 This is yesterday. I looked early this morning and things seemed ok, so I went about my business hoping to take some shots in the afternoon. Then this afternoon I realized the nest was empty, and this was much to early for this to...
MaMarch 21, 2011 Scroll down this page to find shots of this Mom stoically sitting on the nest in a snowstorm. She sure likes having the creek running below her. She's in the running water the minute I turn it on in the morning....
March 20, 2011 The Sandhill Crane Festival is this weekend in Othello, WA. Featured Speakers will be Jack Nisbet and Ken Bevis Friday and Saturday respectively. I don't know how booked up anything is. Check the website at www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org for availability of various tours. Thanks to the Othello...
March 16, 2011 With all the tragic things going on in the world, it's important that I don't sound like I'm complaining. But it's been raining here in Seattle. We're already over a normal March's total precip as we reach the halfway point of the month. This...
Updated April 8, 2011 (first posted March 15, 2011 updated March 27, 2011) Common Nighthawks have traditionally found urban habitats very amenable. I thought I'd take the iconic Nighthawks painting by Hopper and use it for the background. I just have to build the buildings up...
March 15, 2011. In a previous post we described how our Ma Hummer has been through a snow storm and had to endure an exploring cat. Since then there's been a big rainstorm and a freeze. And last night a windstorm came up that had the branch she is...
We headed down to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge today. The air was fresh and the light was spectacular down there. This American Bittern wasn't far from the Visitor's Center. We noticed that when it saw fish, it got excited and started wiggling it's butt like a cat. It...
Hi all, This handsome Red-breasted Sapsucker showed up in our yard today. And, by the way, Mom Anna's Hummingbird has survived the snow, wind, cold weather and all predators and is still awaiting the hatchlings. (We live on Beacon Hill in Seattle, WA. We don't...
We have an Anna’s Hummingbird nesting in our Italian Plum outside our bedroom window. She’s about 3 feet across the tree from where she successfully nested last year. This year it’s a string of indignities. Here she sees a cat walking under the tree. You can...
I arrived in Seattle in 1976 and late that winter in ‘77 I saw a juvenile Golden Eagle with a clear white subterminal band on the tail perched on driftwood in the Skagit Wildlife Recreation area marsh near Conway, WA. Today Delia and I went...
Delia and I and a friend went out to the Snoqualmie Valley to the Stillwater Wildlife Management Area to see if we could add to our state-bird-year-list today. Turns out, we couldn’t. Our list is at 92, a mid-Feb total that's paltry by serious WA Bird-lister...
Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to be very hard to get a certain piece of information about the new tolls being installed on the Highway 520 bridge over Lake Washington. What will the collection-efficiency be? What will it be specifically in the 520 case,...