Special sections
- Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge visit, March 2001

Rob's books

- Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula

Nature writing sites
- Nature Close to Home
- Creeping with Utah Nature Study Society
- The Nature Web
- Nature.net
- Nature writing references
- Nature writing

Environment news
- Tidepool

Resources
- eNature.com
- Olympic Park Institute
- North Cascades Institute
- Orion Society
- Open Spaces
- Second Nature
- The World as Home
- Association for the Study of Literature and Environment

Rob's other Weblogs
- Mac Net Journal

Other stuff
- Rob's Resume
- Natalie's Resume
- Rob's Portal
- Picture Album

Old Blogger archives

Week Fifty-one, March 4-10, 2002

Sunday, March 10, 2002

Despite torrential rain, Natalie and I decided to go to the Great Bend area at the southern end of Hood Canal - normally one of the wettest places in the state - to scout out Potlatch State Park and the western edge of the canal for the bird watching sites we will include in Birding Washington. Ironically, the heavy rain that pelted the windshield on the way to Belfair and the southern end of the Hood Canal actually slowed as we drove into Union and across the Skokomish River to the intersection with Highway 101.

Potlatch State Park looks like a viable site to center one of our chapters around, and we watched birds in the canal where it touches the estuary of the Skokomish River for a bit before deciding to drive north and make a loop of our drive up toward Mt. Walker and toward Port Townsend before crossing the canal on the Hood Canal Bridge and returning home in time for M's birthday party tonight.

The surprising find of the day was a dozen trumpeter swans that we watched and tried to photograph in the tidelands at the mouth of the Duckabush River. They were feeding among wigeon and Northern Pintail, while a kingfisher (shown in today's photo) watched over the scene. And while we watched this scene looking east to the canal, on the hilltops to the west there was fresh snow dusting down to a pretty low elevation. That snow and a gate across the road up to the peak of Mt. Walker kept us from doing our research on that area during this trip. We will have to venture back later this spring.

Saturday, March 9, 2002

Thirty-five. Today is my birthday, and so the clock clicks over and I am supposed to feel older. Other than the fact that my health insurance payments will go up $25 a month thanks to my new age, I feel no different today than yesterday. That's always the way it is, until age creeps up so close that health becomes critical.

Most of the day today was spent preparing to have people over for a desert party this evening, but while cleaning up I did notice a new bird in our yard. Though I couldn't get to the binoculars fast enough for sure confirmation, I believe I saw a hairy woodpecker near our bird feeders and then flying and pecking at a bush on the edge of the neighbor's property this afternoon. Natalie saw it as well! It looked much like a Downy woodpecker, but it was too large to be a Downy.

Friday, March 8, 2002

Bring on the blustery weather! I didn't get outside to snap a photo for today's entry, but I did spend a lot of time watching the weather change from my seat here on the couch in the livingroom. Normally, the spring weather here is marked by times when it will rain even though the sun is shining. Rain drifts in on the breeze and brings about this situation. But over the last couple of days things have been a bit more wintery. Instead of rain, it was snowing today as the sun was shining. As M said, it looks like March is coming in like a lion...

Thursday, March 7, 2002

The large snow that was predicted for last night never happened, but it was cold and threatening all day, and this afternoon about a quarter of an inch of freezing rain and snow fell in a short period. And it hung around into the night, as Natalie and I ventured out to the geekiest movie showing we have ever been to in our lives.

While this cold weather is in the area, our bird feeders are getting slammed. The pine siskins, sparrows and finches are cleaning up the food faster than I have ever seen before.

Wednesday, March 6, 2002

From the sunshine outside today, it is hard to imagine that there is snow forecast for tonight. I snapped today's photo of Rhia sunning along the side of the house off the back porch this afternoon, before the high clouds rolled in. It does feel cool outside, but snow? I have my doubts...

Tuesday, March 5, 2002

I am always amazed to see how quickly seeds can sprout once they get their minds set on it. Over the weekend I moved the tomato starts down from the top of the refrigerator so that I could place them under the florescent lights to grow. But the pepper seeds that I planted at the same time as the tomatoes were not sprouting yet. That was Sunday. On Monday I saw one pepper seed sprout. And today a half dozen of the hot pepper plants sprouted from the potting soil. None of the bell peppers are up yet, but they are sure to arrive en masse very soon!

Monday, March 4, 2002

Back to the normal work grind today, although with a twist since I had to work a shift on Lycos in the afternoon, which I don't normally do on a Monday. As a result of being tied to home for work, I didn't get outside much. I spent a lot of time watching the feeder birds outside our front room, and with the amount of sunshine outside, I ventured out in the early evening to snap photos of the crocus that are in full bloom now along the sidewalk in front of the house. Crocus are one of my favorite flowers. They bloom early and in normal later winters and early springs, even when the skies are gray with clouds then they add a bit of color to the end of the long winter.

This year, unseasonable weather has the crocus doing better than ever, but it is not gray outside. Instead, we have been facing cold mornings with frost and temperatures in the 20s and warm days with temperatures topping 50 degrees. Glorious early spring weather!

Copyright © 2002 White Rabbit Publishing.

All rights reserved.