The Tangled Nest

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Entries Tagged as 'urban nature'

Backyard Camping: Sleeping Out in the Urban Wilderness

September 24th, 2009 · 4 Comments

In the summer, we like to set up our tent in the backyard, and move into it.  The tent has a wide, screened roof through which stars, moon, warm breezes, and leafy shadows all make their way.  Normally we put the tent away when back-to-school time rolls around, but this year we didn’t.  And now [...]

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Tags: urban nature

A New Kind of Birdsong

September 16th, 2009 · 5 Comments

We know that attention to the natural world can open our eyes to new ways of seeing.  Have a look at this lovely little one minute video.  The creator, Brazilian artist Jarbas Agnelli, says, “Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to [...]

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Tags: art, birds, urban nature

Urban Geology: It’s Not Just a Facade

August 21st, 2009 · 5 Comments

Guest post from David B. Williams:
Lyanda was kind enough to let me post on The Tangled Nest.  By way of introduction, I am the author of Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology, which came out this June.  Some of you may have heard of my previous book, The Seattle Street-Smart Naturalist: Field Notes from [...]

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Tags: urban nature

Urban Geology: Coming Tomorrow to The Tangled Nest

August 20th, 2009 · 7 Comments

I’m super excited to announce that tomorrow, The Tangled Nest will be honored by a stop from David B. Williams on the “virtual book tour” for his new book, Stories in Stone:  Travels Through Urban Geology.  David is a brilliant geologist, an original thinker, a terrific writer, and the author of one of my favorite [...]

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Tags: urban nature

Leucy, A Most Unusual Crow, RIP

August 3rd, 2009 · 9 Comments

My West Seattle neighborhood has been graced, the past few years, by a most unusual crow.  Her actual sex is not definitively known, but those who lived on her street and watched her most closely suggest “she,” so I’ll go with that.  This crow was famous in her small circle, and everyone seemed to have [...]

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Tags: birds, crows, urban nature

Homegrown Hummingbird Feeder

July 26th, 2009 · 4 Comments

I am much too lazy to have a hummingbird feeder.  I never manage to keep enough food made, or to clean the feeder often enough, so instead of bringing me joy, hummingbird feeding has always filled me with guilt.  Plus our deck, where we want the birds to visit, is in full sun, and the [...]

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Tags: birds, urban nature

A Bird in the Hand (Will NOT be Abandoned by its Parents!)

July 12th, 2009 · 6 Comments

The other day Tom pulled down a House Sparrow nest lodged in an outdoor electrical box, assuming the birds were done with it.  But many resident birds, those that don’t migrate, will attempt a second brood of chicks later in the summer.  These birds first nested in a corner of our gutter, but their nest [...]

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Tags: birds, urban nature

Magical Cottonwood Snowfall

June 7th, 2009 · 3 Comments

This week we Seattle-ites experienced record high temperatures for the first week of June.  On one of those 90 degree evenings, Tom turned up all sweaty from his bike ride home and said, “I’m taking you girls to see some snow.”
We live at the top of our watershed, a couple miles uphill from Longfellow Creek, [...]

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Tags: urban nature

Western Tanager and the Morning Cup

June 4th, 2009 · 5 Comments

This morning while I was sipping my morning coffee in the backyard, a Western Tanager dropped from the sky into a corner of our little pond.  No matter how many tanagers I see in my life, I will never cease to be startled by their glowing presence.  Western Tanagers are bright yellow with black wings, [...]

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Tags: birds, urban nature

Crow Planet Art, and Dive-bombing Crows

April 24th, 2009 · 4 Comments

Yesterday I was out hanging clothes on the sunny line as the crows in the neighbor’s Douglas fir worked on their nest.  So I just had to share this image from my new book, Crow Planet.  Amazing local artist Dan Cautrell created gorgeous lino-cuts for each chapter.  This one is called “Dwelling,” and I think [...]

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Tags: clotheslines, crows, urban nature