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Week Thirty-four, November 5-11
Sunday, November 11, 2001
The quintessential image of maple leaves coating the sidewalk near our house was too much for me to pass up today. The owner of the trees lets the leaves gather each fall before her yard crew comes around and gathers them and blows them to the side of the road, so I have known for a few days that I had a limited time to get a photo of the scene. I am glad I remembered to stop and snap the photo on my way home from checking Puget Creek.
Saturday, November 10, 2001
What a great day for bird watching! It was overcast and cool, but rain didn't fall until nightfall as we joined members of our intermediate birding class from the Tahoma Audubon Society to look at waterfowl and shorebirds in Kitsap County. The photo above, taken near Manchester State Park, offers a good glimpse of the weather conditions. It was perfect for watching grebes, loons, scoters, ducks, geese, cormorants and even a pileated woodpecker late in the evening (pictured below).
I made the most of the day, even though by the early afternoon I was in the early stages of the worst migraine headache I have had this year. After getting home, I was off for bed and other than an attempt to stay up to watch a great new production from the local PBS channel called "Over Alaska," I headed to bed for about 12 hours of sleeping off the headache.
I took the shot of the woodpecker through our spotting scope, and though it was dark outside and I don't have a real good way to take shots through the scope, it came out pretty good for a small sized shot...
Friday, November 9, 2001
It may be fall, but don't tell the forsythia plant along our front porch. It is starting to put on a minor show with what should be spring blooms emerging in the late fall air. Maybe this bush knows that we are tempted to cut it down before the winter is over. Or maybe it is just making the most of the sunshine.
There isn't much new going on today, with one odd exception. All of a sudden there are millions of white flies taking to the air in the evenings up here on the hilltop as well as down at Puget Gulch. I haven't tried to identify the little creatures yet, but they are everywhere..
Thursday, November 8, 2001
Still no salmon in the creek, but I continue to check daily nonetheless. I spent more time that usual at the creek today, after opting to help out with a mid-week planting event this afternoon. I decided to work on a Thursday because Natalie and I will be on another birding trip this weekend when the normal monthly planting event takes place.
Wednesday, November 7, 2001
There is no doubt that is it fall outside now. With frost every morning this week so far, the sugars in the leaves that remain on the trees are turning those leaves shades of red, orange and yellow. I took today's photo while doing my walk in Puget Gulch. I looked up at the sun-lit tree tops while I stood at one of the log bridges that crosses the steam and it looked like a perfect image of fall.
It is this time of crisp mornings and vivid colors that makes fall my favorite season. I like the way that one day it can be clear and crisp, and the next the wind can be blowing 30 miles an hour with sideways rain pelting me as I walk Rhia around the neighborhood. That changability of the weather makes everything feel alive. And if you add in the fact that birds are flocking, that rafts of waterfowl gather in Commencement Bay and elsewhere around the Puget Sound, and that Canadian geese are on the move in the skies, it is an exciting time in the nature of this region.
Tuesday, November 6, 2001
I snapped today's photo as the daylight was failing and I drove back down to the tideflats to pick up Natalie from work. This bridge spans the Thea Foss Waterway, one of the most poluted fingers of water reaching from Commencement Bay inland and along the shores of downtown Tacoma. The waterway below is being cleaned up, and new museums and other projects are being built along the water, but at least for now one of the most visual elements along the Tacoma skyline is this new bridge that is only five or six years old now.
One thing I did forget to do today, and I didn't realize this until tonight when Natalie and I attended our birdwatching and identification class at the Tahoma Audubon Center, was a walk along Puget Creek. This is the first day this month that I have missed my walk in Puget Gulch.
Monday, November 5, 2001
Work got the better of me today, and I neglected to take the camera outside for a photo or two. I did do my daily walk down at Puget Creek this afternoon, but for some reason, I didn't snap a photo. There are still no signs of the returning salmon, but I am keeping up the daily check to see if and when the coho salmon make their way back into our little 1,500-foot stream.
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