30 April 2014 - Seattle, What's Not to Like?

Extra time in Seattle, what's a girl to do?  First stop: Discovery Park. What an amazing place! Everything from deep dark forests to meadows to wetlands to beaches.  I walked as many trails as I could in the three free hours I had. 

The best part of this? Pileated Woodpeckers. I sat on a rotting log and watched a pair work over a stump. That was quite a thrill. They were pecking so hard that wood chips were flying as far as two feet away.  I love these moments.

In addition to the woodpeckers there were literally hundreds of Yellow-rumped Warblers.               



With the amazing assortment of birds and the incredible vistas, it was a wonderful way to spend a morning. 





 




Later on, I met up with Shirlee and Susan and we did a quick run through the Pike Street Market. 

David was conspicuously absent. And terribly missed.

The flower market was 90% tulips. Nothing says Spring quite like hundreds of buckets of tulips. 

Yet, another of the great things about Seattle is the signage, especially the neon.

 I have been a fan of neon for as long as I can remember. Seattle is a hot bed of neon. Not only do I love neon, but figural neon is a favorite, and Seattle has a lot. Here are too many pictures. 

 

 
 

This is such great stuff. I could bore you with hundreds of examples. It is fabulous that the State Hotel has kept its original sign up that advertises 75 cents a room. Makes my heart swell.

The big event was dinner. Matt's at the Market was fabulous again. 

David had plans for us to drink absinthe. Due to knee surgery, he was unable to come. I had a Miglio as a toast in his absinthe. 

Do these dinners make your mouth water?  They should!

Shirlee and Susan had a meeting the next morning, so I went exploring. Had a great walk in Freeway Park. I enjoy the dichotomy of parks against skyscrapers. It really softens the angles of a city. 

Had a great conversation with the gardener responsible for all the plantings in this five acre park. 

She was opinionated and knowledgeable. And I learned a lot about what grows in Seattle and why. 

After that I headed for the docks. Things to see included both the giant squid:

as well as the Giant Pacific Octopus. 

According to a docent at the Aquarium, this is the biggest one they have ever had. She graciously posed with the octopus for a size comparison. 

Octopi are seriously cute. Look at this head. Doesn't it make you want to give him a hug?
(Yes, him. I learned how to tell male from female. Ask and I'll tell you about tentacles.)

 
 The aquarium was small but presented the fish and exhibits beautifully. I loved the star fish. 

The striped and polka-dotted angel was breathtaking. This picture shows the actual size. They had a small tank with some babies. The entire fish including fins and tail was smaller than a dime.

And finally, I got Susan to walk to the Seattle Waterfront Arcade and ride the carousel with me. The horses were magnificent!  After returning home I did a little research and discovered this is one of the oldest continuously working carousels and was made in the early 1900s.  Another source said it was a replica of the classic Illions carousels. Hmm. 

Either way, the horses were fabulous! Susan and I were the only people riding, so I chose the lead horse. Susan made me laugh when she said that this was the first time she had ridden in a while. Her new role involves standing beside the horse making sure Ella doesn't fall off.

The carving, painting and ornamentation was incredible. Any of the horses were worth picking, but the lead horse (above) was outstanding!

 Seattle. What's not to like? Not enough time to see it all, do it all. I think another trip is in my future.











 

15 April 2014 - A really great day!

Yesterday I flew to Tulsa for a meeting. Today, I had a couple of hours to kill before my flight home. I consulted the googler for some places to bird in and around Tulsa.  Oh my!  I need to go back for a week!

I settled on the Oxley Nature Park as it was a stone's throw from the airport.  After arriving, I was pulling gear out of the car, getting ready to start on a trail.  I spied an older gentlemen in total birder attire: hat, backpack, binocular harness. I hailed him and asked him some questions about his recommendations for trails and what I was likely to see. After a 15 minute conversation, he said, "Why don't you tag along with me?"  I didn't even blink. YES!

Ed is a retired pathologist (both practicing and teaching) who has been birding most of his life. He is just like me. He wants to know what he is looking at. His backpack, it turns out, was stuffed with field guides: birds, butterflies, trees, insects, amphibians and wildflowers. 

I can't begin to explain what a wonderful time I had walking the trails. He was always pushing his binoculars on me to make sure I could see the field marks. In a few short hours I learned so much.  

The 2800 acre area is comprised of lakes, streams, wetlands, hardwood forests, dry grass fields,  and boardwalks over the wetlands. 

After two hours of walking, looking, listening, looking. . .we came to a beautiful stone bench. "Sit." He said.  I sat.  He rummaged around in his backpack and pulled out a 12" Subway sandwich. He laughed and told me that he never buys the 12" sandwiches because they are way too big for one person, but today there was a special on, so he thought why not? In addition to having a fabulous guide and great teacher, I had a nice lunch as well. 


We saw 22 species of birds, three of which three were lifers for me: Northern Parula, White-Eyed Vireo and Harris's Sparrow.   

This picture (not mine) is a Northern Parula - a member of the warbler family. He is tiny. The guide book says 4.5 inches. A chickadee is 5.5 inches, so you get the idea just how small it is.

 

Here is the White-eyed Vireo. Again, this is another small bird. Five inches from tip of bill to tip of tail. Bigger than a Parula and smaller than a Chickadee. 

                                                         And finally, the Harris's Sparrow. In SLC, I spent a lot of time out at the Lee Kay Ponds trying to find one-- just one that people were reporting having seen in a flock of sparrows. Here I saw about ten.


Another wonderful part of the trip was hearing two barred owls talk to each other. We could hear the call and answer, could tell about where they were coming from, but didn't find the birds. 

The open water was full of blue-winged teals--as many as several hundred. Didn't see a single mallard. That was nice. 
 
Along the way we saw many, many red sliders.  Any submerged log or rock had a pile of turtles.

In addition to turtles, there were bull frogs and chorus frogs and tadpoles for both. There were thousands and thousands of chorus frog tadpoles. Chorus frogs are about an inch and a half long, their little tadpoles were not even a half inch long. 

The bullfrog tadpoles were a good 3 1/2 to 4 inches long. We also saw a black rat snake and a skink.  The damselflies were out in huge numbers,  plus a few dragonflies. 

My new friend, Ed, was learning about butterflies as well. We identified eleven different kinds. That was so much fun that I bought the Kaufman Guide to Butterflies before I left.  

My only disappointment was that I didn't see any scissor-tailed fly catchers-- they like big open areas. Ed told me how to get to the airport on the back roads. He said I would see them on the fence around the airport. He was right!

This is a juvenile. The tail is shorter and the coloring is different from the adult. 

And here is an adult. Much longer tail! I couldn't catch one in flight for the full scissor tail effect. 

How many ways can I tell you what a great day this was!

 

11 April 2014 - Beaky, Eyes and Wow!

This morning I got out early--the search was on for a horned grebe. I was headed for a pond where some sightings had been reported. No grebes, but a couple of wows. 

The first wow was an osprey.  That is one wicked looking beak. 

While I was walking around the pond looking for the grebe, I was watching a clutch of cormorants. As usual, they were hanging out with the pelicans. However, they were particularly interesting for several reasons. 

First, these were double-crested cormorants. Normally, their crests don't show, but today they were definitely flaunting their crests.  Second, I discovered the inside of their mouths are blue. And third, oh my god, their eyes! Beautiful! They don't look like they can possibly be real. 

 Look at these eyes! All the little white spokes around the edge. Just amazing.

This is a rather magnificent bird when you see it up close. I will never dismiss them again as "just a cormorant" again.

 


 

10 April 2104 - So soon it starts

I do not wish to rub the warmer weather we are having in the face of all my Midwestern friends who are still struggling with piles of snirt in parking lots and along driveways, but...today?  Today I mowed the lawn. Seems mighty early to be doing that. Granted, I did fertilize in early March, right before some snow and rain storms, so that added to the length, but still. 

On April 1 we received 6 inches of snow which was gone in a day and a half. On April 3 we had rain, hail and snow. A couple days later I'm mowing the lawn. Makes me think my world is slightly askew. 

Yesterday while on my daily mile, I noticed all kinds of spring.  My own yard has daffodils, hyacinths, grape hyacinths, windflowers and mahonia in bloom, not to mention the apricot and crabapple trees are covered in blossoms. 

On my walk, I noticed that some of the aspens had leafed out, and the evil, invasive, escaped garden plant, spurge was taking over the hillside. Every spring Salt Lake City hosts a Purge the Spurge weekend--paying people by the garbage bag full for digging up this stuff. Here is a huge patch of spurge on the mountain side- already blooming.

 At this time of year I also love how the bright chartreuse leaf buds are so showy against other bare branches. This willow tree is a great example. 

Every now and then you can find a small patch of trout lilies.  They used to grow wild all over this area, but have mostly disappeared under lawns and landscaping. This entire plant is four inches tall.
They are a most charming harbinger of spring.

 The early bloomers around here  mostly come in shades of yellow and blue.  Even the dandelions are starting to show up in lawns. Last year I spent hours on my knees communing with a digger and hope mine are mostly eradicated, but you never know what seeds the wind, birds or deer will drop for your enjoyment. 

This evening I was down in the valley, which is a frou-frou mass of white and pink. Redbuds, weeping cherries, ornamental plums are in full pink froth, accented by hundreds of white blooming Bradford pears. Speaking of invasive species, am I the only one who thinks the ubiquitous Bradford should be banned?  

The weekend highs should hit the low 70s. This will ensure the fat coral buds on the quince will burst into flowers. Blooming quince always is the signal for the return of the hummingbirds. The feeder is now up and ready for any early, tired and hungry hummer.  I live by the adage, if you feed them, they will come. So far, I have and they do. 

4 April 2014 - Not bird watching

In the very contrary nature of the universe, I've discovered that if you go out to find something, you usually don't. Not that you don't run across other interesting stuff on your journey, it just wasn't what you thought you'd find. 

Today is a good example. It's spring. The migrating shore and water birds are starting to show up on local waterways. I thought I'd go look.  Haven't been out for a while and it was supposed to hit 50 today, thus the trip to check out the causeway to Antelope Island. 

Eared Grebe

As far as birds go, I didn't see much. Oh no, I'm laughing as I write this. I saw 20 species, two or three of them in large quantities. For example, there were about 100 of these perky little Eared Grebes.  Funny! I should be so excited to see 20 species, and here I am grousing  about what I didn't see.

What did I see? 
Jackrabbits. Lots of jackrabbits.

 Quite a few antelope.

 

Many buffalo. No babies yet, or at least not in sight. Bushes and downed limbs are covered with clumps of buffalo hair as they rub and roll on anything handy to help shed their winter coats. This big guy had just heaved himself to his feet after a roll in a wallow. Still has dirt on his face from his roll.

 

 Coyotes! Usually you see them off in the distance. I almost missed the shot when a group of three crossed the road in front of me. 

In addition to the large mammals, there were some small herps. 
Up by the Visitor's Center, I spotted a little garter snake soaking up some sun. I chased her (definitely a her) and amazed myself by catching her. Nice to know I still have the chops.  Not far away was a ranger giving a talk to a bunch of school kids. I don't know who was more surprised, the ranger, the teacher or the parents, when I walked up, handed the snake to the ranger and said "Would you like to show this to the kids?" Yes, he would, and did.

Lizards. There are always lizards. When we were kids, Robin, David and I used to catch these all the time. That was before our wilds became suburbanized. 

These lizards will lose their tails in order to escape. In the realm of favorite childhood stories, there was the time Robin caught a lizard, or thought she had. She ended up holding only the tail. She put it in her shirt pocket and never thought about it again. The shirt went through the wash and was being ironed when she discovered why the lump in the pocket would not iron flat. Bwa-ha-ha. Still funny. 

Yes, there were birds, just not what I was hoping to see. The Meadow Larks were out in full song. Every bush, every rock, fence post, or sign had a Meadow Lark on top singing his little heart out. There was not even one second of silence--the air was filled with song. 

My language is getting peppered with bird speak. FOY is now part of the daily vernacular. I've learned that so many birds are migratory that birders report their sightings as FOY--first of year.  

The FOY sighting on my island foray were yellow-headed blackbirds. Only males so far, but they were in full squabble. They were busy setting up territories and defending them with their loud calls. I hesitate to call them songs as they are definitely not musical in any way. One of my guide books describes their "song" this way: a variety of hoarse chuckles, cacophonous strangling noises, and honking gurgles. Yep. The strangling noises says it all. 

 

They are a flashy bird with that bright head, and in flight the white wing coverts are very showy. 

The worst part of the day?  Ticks!  Big ticks. Buffalo ticks. But I plucked a couple off on the island and only got home with one. 
Knowing the island has ticks, I sprayed my jeans, shoes, socks with repellent, but it didn't seem to discourage them.  

Backing up,  on the way to the island, I made a quick stop at Jensen's Pond, a new-to-me destination.  Pelicans! I love pelicans, so I settled in to watch a group of five preen and otherwise do pelican stuff.  Pelicans always seem to be accompanied by cormorants. I don't know if it because the cormorants like to steal food from the pelicans or just what the reason is. But, here is my big laugh of the day. Is it just me, or does this look like a dirty old man in a raincoat?

For a small pond, there were quite a few ducks, good ducks, not just the ubiquitous mallards. 

New for me was the blue-winged teal. Yay! This was bird number 201.  I'm moving up in the world. 

In addition to the blue-winged teal, there were green-winged teals, cinnamon teals and American wigeons. It was fun to see them all together in the same place. Great for comparing and contrasting features. 

Blue-winged teal

Green-winged Teal

Cinnamon Teal

American Wigeon - Pair

Closing my day was the landscape. Never fails to fill me with awe.