Clam Digging Glaucous Winged Gulls

Today was a wondrously sunny day here in Northwestern Coastal Washington. Stacey and I drove up to Semiahmoo Spit on the border with Canada and watched Glaucous Winged Gulls eat clams. Once the tide started rolling out, the gulls followed it and would dip their heads into the water, showing only their behinds. Others would manage to scrap something up in shallower water too without having to take the plunge. With success in their beaks, they would fly high and drop the clams on the intertidal rocks. Sometimes they were successful at opening the clam with the first try, but often they would have to repeat their aerial flight pattern to drop the clam a second or even a third time. It was quite the Harvest to witness.

In the third photo you can see the gull dropping its clam in the hope of breaking it open upon the rocks below.

Acorn Woodpecker

This seems to be one busy bird. The acorn woodpecker is drilling holes in this Douglas Fir at Point Reyes National Seashore. There were tens of thousands of holes between several trees with acorns in them. Half of their diet is one of eating these acorns. They must have to let them age to let the tannins, the bitter factor, leach out some. They also enjoy sap, nectar, fruit, and insects. When I went to school at U.C. Santa Cruz there was an acorn woodpecker outside of the dorms. He was always making new holes in the redwood trees. It was always a pleasure being entertained by their passion for the harvest.

Gophers

When we were in the Bay Area, there was a period of a week where I kept on seeing gophers popping their heads up to the surface as they were working on their tunnels and bringing fresh soil to the surface of the earth. These are two different gophers from Point Reyes National Seashore. All of them would just watch me as I watched them come to the surface bull dozing the dirt in just the right place. They were very precise about how it should be done.

Colour in a Gray World

There is some colour emerging in this gray world.

The skies are beginning to Awaken.

The grass is getting Greener.

And the first flowers have opened their eyes.

This Bushtit is a bit shy.

It blends in with the thorny bushes and understory.

But it does have secrets to tell.

Perhaps when it sees some Colour again,

She will sing openly about what is hidden deep within.

Tule Elk at Point Reyes National Seashore

While we were visiting California we took a drive to Point Reyes National Seashore, and on the northern Peninsula they have a Tule Elk Reserve. I've noticed a few small populations of this particular elk species in California, another being along the seashores of Redwood National Park and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Here in Washington State, we have a species called Roosevelt Elk. In the Rocky Mountains they have, of course, Rocky Mountain Elk.

While hiking back from the Ocean we got to enjoy a gigantic flock of White Crowned Sparrows feeding in a field.

California Quail in California

Are California Quail from California? I sincerely doubt it. We are all immigrants here. The world is a melting pot and it is constantly mixing with one another. There is no reason to dislike Starlings, House Sparrows, and what society may call invasive. Everything is always changing. The secret is not to fight the change but to flow with it, and by flowing with it we find a new balancing point with the changes that constantly occur. New introductions bring new stories and new ways of feeling and experiencing the world. Everything is a potential tool. Everything has importance. All energy is inherently alive with the ability to express its self. The world is one big puzzle and everything has its place. Let us accept what we perceive as new to the neighborhood. There is something to learn from it and to incorporate into our own lives.

New Perspectives from Bellingham, Washington

There are always new ways to See and to take in Life. Most views and angles are hidden until focused upon in plain sight. Be creative and open in new ways of perceiving the world around us. Ask New Questions. Take New and Unexplored Routes. Take even the same Routes, but see the World fresh with New Definitions, Rules, and Beliefs. The World is constantly in Motion and Remixing its' Self to See what Stories can be told and Invented. You are A Story waiting to be experienced. What Adventures will you Discover?