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...
Posted June 7, 2017 from Seattle Washington Luckily, the open season on shooting upland birds and water birds and all mammals and anything else you want to shoot, including stop signs, with a camera appears to have been extended through the spring 2017 in Washington state. In...
Posted May 1 2017 from Seattle, WA and updated May 4, 2017 The theme of this blog is birds and water. The Warblers have arrived in Seattle on their spring migration north. Butyl Creek was busy on May 3 with Warblers of four species, Orange-crowned, Yellow-rumped,...
Posted March 8, 2017 from Seattle, WA We went to the wedding of the very wonderful son of long-time friends and his very wonderful fiance in New Orleans. You know you're old when at 11 pm after dancing all night you're shocked to see a Party...
Posted from Rodeo, New Mexico Jan 5, 2016 I guess it's the 6th Extinction, but the Christmas Counts were down this year. We found a Gray Flycatcher on the Portal Count and we flushed five Montezuma Quail on the Peloncillo Count. The next day we went...
Posted December 5, 2016 from Seattle, WA Our friend Brian Pendleton has been working on his Washington state yearbird list this year and yesterday we had the thrill of being there for Number 350. Brian had been fearing that 350 might be a Mute Swan, non-native...
Posted September 6 and Updated October 24, 2016 from Seattle, WA In Late September it was time to go down and check up on the ranch, where the 750ft. well no longer can get water up to the gravity-tank that supplies water to the house and...
Posted August 7, 2016 from Seattle, WA. Welcome to Washington!!! This Snowy Egret in Fife last weekend (Aug 1) was the first ever recorded in Pierce County. Snowy Egrets, like Great Egrets, may be making a push northward. Snowy Egrets are active foragers and this...
Posted April 13, 2016 from Seattle, WA It amazes me how many things I need to learn before I can live my life right, but at my age the forgetting curve is beginning to collide with the learning curve. Anyway, I suppose not leaving your camera...
Posted March 19, 2016 from Seattle, WA Delia has been under the weather so we ventured out late today to Lake Sammamish State Park, where we did a 10,000 step walk out towards the marina. I overdressed and regretted it in the stifling muggy heat of...
Posted Feb 25, 2016 from Seattle, WA In contrast to the “We mess with Texas” trip, no sunscreen was needed on our recent four-day expedition to the Okanogan. After an early start we were going great guns picking up birds on I-90 on Friday morning. A...
Feeding birds involves making a pact with the Devil, but it got so cold and rainy I felt so sorry for the Spotted Towhees scratching around back there that I went and bought some bird food. Between the creek and the free food, we’re chumming in some nice...
Posted Dec. 7, 2015 from Seattle, WA I just realized that since the Inland Waters of Southern British Columbia and Western Washington have now been renamed, and are officially the Salish Sea, that means that a trip on one of the ferries is an oversea voyage. In...
Posted Nov. 20, 2015 from Seattle, WA I’ve heard “Don’t mess with Texas” my whole life. If I took it seriously, I would probably go to Florida, Hawaii or California to find subtropical birds in the US, rather than “messing” with Texas. But Delia and I...
Posted from the Seattle, WA, October 30, 2015 Fall is sort of a benign time in the high desert SW. No hot windy duststorms like sometimes in spring, and none of the cold that traditionally at least used to come with winter--knock on wood there's snow in the high...
Posted September 2, 2015 from Seattle, WA; updated Oct. 5, 2015 The big news from Butyl Creek is that Delia and I have designated the entire length of the creek, all the way from Butyl Falls to Pumphouse Lake as a “Wild and Scenic Creek.” No...
Posted from Seattle August 12, 2015 The Atacama Desert in SW Peru gets the same total of rainfall every year: none. With no rainfall lately-- (Newsflash: Until today right now at noon!!! A thunderstorm no less! PS.: at 1 pm: It didn't produce rain here on Beacon...
Posted june 28, 2015 from Seattle, WA Not far from Port Townsend is the largest breeding island in the world for Rhinocerous Auklets, a seabird closely related to Puffins. We took a trip Sat evening led by the famous expert Bainbridge Island bird trip leader George Gerdts to...