Posted September 23, 2020 from Upper Post Office Canyon I didn't know Bears kissed so much! When our young dynamic researcher friends Emily and John suggested putting a game-cam at the wildlife tank just up-canyon from the house here, I thought, "Oh, that's nice, maybe they'll get some great...
Posted through smoke on sad anniversary day of September 11, 2020 Birds, especially the Neotropicals--the birds that migrate south to the Tropics every fall--love to take baths, regardless of the weather. But as smoke today descended on Butyl Creek (our 12-foot recirculating creek on Beacon Hill)...
Posted from the Central Peloncillo Mtns, New Mexico, May 19, 2020 Delia and I arrived late in Tucson, too late to bird the Airport Wash. But we noticed a sign of the times as we headed out: seven Javelinas headed out for a night on the town. The...
Posted May 9, 2020 Hi all, Many of the Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers seem to have already departed for points north or up. (Many Yellow-rumps high in the Cascades, Orange-crowneds as far north as the Brooks Range in Alaska.) The next wave has arrived, Here is one of...
Posted from Seattle, WA April 10 2020 Here is a male Yellow-rumped Warbler in Butyl Creek, April 11, 2020 This Wilson's Warbler, bathing on the Creek on April 27th, illustrates a pet peeve of wildlife artists. If you painted this bird in the pose shown, everybody,...
posted from Seattle, WA on March 26, 2020 The photo is a bit haunting and emotional for me. It could never have been taken in 2019. The Newsstand is gone. Right through to the last day that the Ed Newbold Wildlife Store was open this March,...
Posted from Seattle, WA on December 1, 2019. Some may suspect that Delia and I are very proud of how many birds we get in our tiny yard on Beacon Hill, which we credit to the fact that we don't mow or hardscape, that we seem...
Posted October 6 2019 from Seattle, WA I never thought much about the name Kinglet until I started seeing Kinglets take a bath in our recirculating creek. When you see these birds foraging in the woods, they look like little gray birds, but when they...
Posted from Seattle, WA on September 14, 2019 Anyone caught speeding is subject to having their cap snatched. This Barred Owl was on a Speed Limit sign near Hansville, WA in September. Barred Owls have been involved in many incidents of cap-stealing but I'm not...
Posted from Seattle, WA on July 11, 2019 I moved to Seattle in 1976, and I didn't come because I heard it was smokey in the summer. I am delighted that we've had normal or even above-normal rains so far in July, and I...
Posted May 2, 2019 from Seattle, WA Birds love to bathe and no longer have much opportunity in urban areas where all the runoff and most of the creeks are sent immediately down manholes and shipped to West Point, i.e., Seattle. So we provide the birds with...
Posted on April 13, 2019 from Seattle WA. We just got back yesterday from New Mexico. One good thing that happened down there is I finally got a shot of a Lucifer Hummingbird that I actually like and that does this handsome little hummer justice. The first shot...
Posted February 8, 2019 from Seattle, WA Butyl Creek has been a busy place in the last few weeks, what with the Great Miserable 2019 Beacon Hill Tennessee Warbler Stakeout and various snowstorms. Photo by Ollie Oliver The stakeout brought at least 40 or 50 people to the...
Posted from Seattle, WA Feb. 2 2019 A little bird that breeds way North of here and normally winters way South of here is visiting the backyard, but those visits have at times been painfully and excruciatingly sparse and while many birders have seen the bird,...
Posted from the central Peloncillo Mountains, New Mexico, Jan 2, 2019 The shot above shows Coatis frolicking in the snow across from the house here in the Peloncillo Mountains of New Mexico, which are located in the extreme SW "bootheel" of New Mexico. Coatis are related...
Posted from Seattle, November 17, 2018, (updated periodically In a moment of bravado I paraphrased a song and wrote, "The Creek goes on forever and the party never ends." Butyl Creek that is, the recirculating creek in our backyard. Well, the party is still on for...
Posted from Seattle November 7, 2018 Delia and I have become huge fans of Rainforest Trust, a 30-year old organization that has safeguarded 18 million acres of rainforest all over the world. We like to give to Rainforest Trust right up to the point of financial...
Posted from Seattle September 2, 2018 We have a recirculating creek in our backyard that Delia long ago named Butyl Creek. After a dry spring and a dry summer, it may hold even more attraction for the birds heading south through Seattle than usual. At the...
posted from Seattle on August 3, 2018 We were down at the ranch on July 12-20 to visit CD Littlefield and check on things. The Hooded Oriole pair was evident every day and the male posed on a Yucca, above, as if to emphasize just how...
Posted from Seattle, WA May 3, 2018 We had blowing dust and we woke up one morning to the smell of fire-a range fire on our western neighbor- the Diamond A Ranch. Lucky for us the Diamond A is pretty big and the fire was maybe...
Posted from Seattle, WA April 9, 2018 Our trips have been restrained this year so far, but we have gotten out here and there. We saw our first Rufous Hummingbirds in Discovery Park on April 1. When I was taking the pictures I was hoping the sun...
Posted September 24, 2017 from Beacon Hill, Seattle, WA Change the words to the old song: The CREEK goes on forever and the party never ends! . A rare bird--a Blackpoll Warbler-- for Washington State showed up to take a bath and be part of the ongoing party...