Hunting Drama in Wallingford

I saw a peregrine falcon catch a bird right in front of me today! Just seeing a peregrine falcon is awesome enough, but this tale includes the drama of the kill.

I was walking to the post office (on this beautiful summery Saturday in September), when a blur of feathers swooped down across my path, literally about a foot in front of me!  I was startled to see a peregrine falcon drop his catch and fly back into the branches of the very large and beautiful English Plane tree I was passing. I believe I startled the falcon as much as it startled me!

Needless to say, I abruptly stopped to figure what I had just seen. I quickly whipped out my camera and snapped some pictures of this gorgeous bird (not to mention document the drama of its catch).

The falcon waited probably somewhat impatiently as I stood near its lunch. The unlucky small bird (wren?), lay on its back in the grass, quite dead, its legs sticking straight up. Unfortunately, the bird's colors blend a bit too well in the dry summer grass, so it is somewhat hard to see the details.

I finally walked on, and in passing the bird above me, I realized I had an opportunity to get a picture of it swooping down to retrieve its meal. I turned back just in time to catch a blur of feathers, as the falcon snatched its catch back up!

My Garden in Mid May

Starting late due to our cool spring here in the Pacific NW, the flowers nevertheless looked stunning during their brief bloom in May!

Tulips!

 The backyard is abloom!

 Even the herb garden is blooming! :)

Spring Color

It was immensely cheering to see flowers in late April that made it look like spring, even if it didn't feel like spring. Here is a walk through my neighborhood.

 Flowering rhubarb!

Daffodils

 Tulips

Heybrook Lookout at Mt. Index

Yesterday, James and I took advantage of a gorgeous day (the day before the first day of spring) and drove out to the Skykomish Vally. Just past the town of Index is Mt. Index at nearly 6,000 feet and there is a Forest Service lookout that we hiked to, the Heybrook Lookout. It was a moderately steep climb, with many switchbacks, but it was not a long climb. Here are some pictures of all the beauty of nature in the mountains. Snow is melting, lots of mud, and beautiful views!

Mt. Index ahead.

The Forest Service signboard at the beginning of the trail to Heybrook Look Out.

 The climb begins, with James leading the way.

 

Water falling and flowing everywhere from snowmelt.

Rain forest!

Up and up we go. This is one of the drier parts of the trail.

Snow on the ferns.

The sound of water flowing is everywhere. At one point in the trail we were essentially hiking up through what had become a creek bed, flowing with water.

A peak at Mt. Index as we near the top - gorgeous!

 

Many big boulders left behind by glacial retreat littered the path.

At last! Heybrook Lookout!

The happy hikers, James and Kathy, on the lookout.

James snaps me from tower observation deck.

I see you, James! :)

The panoramic view from the lookout.

The hike back down was faster, but we still had to negotiate all that mud.

We are near the bottom - the path here is a bridge over a stream.

Some fellow hikers - cute Samoyeds! We met them at the lookout.

Driving home, we cross the Skykomish River.

Happy and rosy-cheeked hiker!

Spring Birds - Hummingbird and Western Scrub Jay

It's spring! Although the days vary from wildly wet to drearily gray to stunningly sunny, we are starting to see and hear a lot of bird life. I captured the little hummingbird while walking home from the post office late in the afternoon a couple of days ago. The colors were hard to see, let along capture on camera, as it was a drippy day. This is an Anna's Hummingbird. I did a little research and there are four species of hummingbirds found in the Pacific Northwest: Anna's, Black-chinned, Calliope, and Rufous.Of these four species, only Anna's Hummingbird can be found year round the Puget Sound region of western Washington. We'll have to wait until it gets warmer before we see any of the others.

And a western scrub jay seems to have taken up residence in our back yard! It took us while to identify this bird, as they are not commonly seen in Seattle. He is much bluer than he appears here. All I could get were images of the jay far up in the apple tree. But we've seen it closer, and the colors are blue head, neck, wings, and tail, brownish gray back, white throat, and light gray underparts. It is a relatively big bird, somewhere between a robin and a crow.

In this video, while you can't see it too well, it's distinctive call clearly identifies it as a western scrub jay.

A Sunday Walk - Seattle in November

Sunday was a gray, low-cloud, damp day. So what better to do than go for a stroll through Woodland Park and around Green Lake! The walk yielded interesting sights and smells - full of subtle colors, textures, and contrasts.
FLORA
Fungi

Autumn trees
A few of the trees on the walk around Green Lake

tulip poplar

willow

tamarack

close-up of deciduous tamarack leaves (color has turned from green and needles starting to drop)

Wood chips

A mountain crest of chipped wood on Derby Hill in Woodland Park - fun to climb and it smelled like pencil shavings. :)

FAUNA
Waterfowl

Grebe on a very calm Green Lake - calm enough for mirror image

Crows

Crows pecking for good noms.

Mountain Bike Racers


Steeplechase mountain bikers were racing in Woodland Park. A muddy track and hairpin turns caused several collisions. This steeplechase portion required nimbleness and strength!

A Crow and More Food Caching

Yesterday, while in the car and sitting at a red light, a crow with a food bit in its beak, dropped down to the sidewalk just ahead of me. It then proceeded to hide the food bit with leaves, carefully placing dry leaves over the item. Suddenly, the crow abandoned the caching efforts, grabbed the food and started to fly away! As the crow took off, another crow appeared, ready to land where the other crow was now leaving. Smart crow! It obviously saw a competitor crow, and took off, knowing that the "secret cache" was no longer secret. :D