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 [...]
Entries Tagged as 'urban nature'
A Bird in the Hand (Will NOT be Abandoned by its Parents!)
July 12th, 2009 · 6 Comments
Tags: birds, urban nature
Magical Cottonwood Snowfall
June 7th, 2009 · 4 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, [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
Tags: clotheslines, crows, urban nature
Quid Pro Crow: Gardening Alongside Wildlife
April 23rd, 2009 · 8 Comments
When I planted our peas in March, I chased the crows out of the cherry tree before I started. I was thinking of all the crows I’d seen watching gray squirrels bury their peanuts. The squirrels are so busy-busy, patting down the soil over their treasure with those bad little paws. Then as soon as [...]
Tags: birds, crows, garden, urban nature
When Good Woodpeckers Go Bad
March 17th, 2009 · 7 Comments
This week I received two e-mails from friends who want to know what they can do about their “nemesis”–the woodpecker that is maniacally drumming their house at all hours. This is a frequent spring complaint about Northern Flickers, the most common urban-suburban woodpecker. They are beautiful fawn-colored birds with black spots, long-ish bills, and pretty, [...]
Tags: birds, urban nature
