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TARANTULA HAWKS
Pepsis sp. Coronado National Forest, Arizona. 30 Aug 2015. Netta Smith photo Tarantula Hawk, what a crazy name for a wasp! Well, I want to tell you all about how this fascinating insect got its...
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VENOMOUS SNAKES OF THE NORTHWEST
The Pacific Northwest has just one venomous snake, the Pacific Rattlesnake Crotalus oreganus. Formerly considered conspecific with the Prairie Rattlesnake Crotalus viridis, ours has been split from...
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GREEDY GREBES GRABBING GRUB
I have been following the Pied-billed Grebes at Magnuson Park in Seattle for about two months now, and they never fail to be interesting and always offer good photo ops. Various members of the family...
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THE ANGELIC AND DEVILISH PIED-BILLED GREBE
Pied-billed Grebes, Podilymbus podiceps, breed at several lakes within the city of Seattle and doubtless within many other cities in the Pacific Northwest. One of our breeding sites is Magnuson Park,...
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VIREOS, INCONSPICUOUS SIGNS OF SUMMER
Now that summer has come around, it’s time to look at breeding birds, of which we have plenty in the Pacific Northwest. One such group is the vireos, Vireonidae. Members of this family, at least out...
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TOO MUCH WIND FOR BY-THE-WIND SAILORS
For more than a month now, Pacific Northwest outer ocean beaches have been the scene of a massive stranding of by-the-wind sailors, Velella velella. These little blue critters are washing up on our...
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LONG-HORNED BEETLES
Beetles are the most diverse animals in the world, with surely over a million species, although only about 350,000 have been described to date. Any collection of tropical insects contains undescribed...
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A WHITE BLACK BIRD
I look at a lot of birds every year, and I don’t see many that are as cool as this one, a leucistic Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala). This striking bird is wintering at the end of Sandy Point,...
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AN INTIMATE AVIAN EXPERIENCE
For a unique and intimate experience with waterfowl and other birds, visit George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary west of Ladner, British Columbia. Reifel Refuge, as it’s called by many, is a...
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A COMMUNITY OF SAPSUCKERS
North America has the distinction of being the only continent on which a group of birds has evolved the ability to tap into the sap of living trees. These are the four species of sapsuckers...
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BAND-TAILED PIGEON
You’ve doubtless seen the pigeons feeding in the city square or along the freeways roosting on light standards and nesting under the overpasses. These are Rock Pigeons (Columba livia), formerly called...
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MERGANSERS, THE TOOTHY DUCKS
Mergansers are fish-eating ducks. They are closely related to Buffleheads and goldeneyes, but because they diverged sharply from their invertebrate-eating relatives, their anatomy has diverged sharply...
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URBAN YARDS CAN BE WILDLIFE FRIENDLY
During their first lab, I used to take the students in my vertebrate zoology class at the University of Puget Sound on a walk in the urban wilds. After we had walked a few blocks, I asked them to tell...
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PELAGIC BIRDS ARE OUT THERE
Most people have heard of albatrosses; few people have seen them. But every summer they are common offshore visitors to the Pacific Northwest. Boat trips out of Westport, Washington, and Newport,...
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WATCH OUT, IT STINGS—OR DOES IT?
We all know when yellowjacket season rolls around, with pesky wasps that bother us on every picnic. You can usually chase them away easily, but they come back again and again. They are relatively...
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THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST IS SLUG COUNTRY
With our very wet climate (favorable for terrestrial mollusks) and our relatively acid soils (not so favorable for forming snail shells), we furnish great habitat for slugs. The ones most of us see...
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SEA STARS WINKING OUT
Sea stars (you may know them as starfish) are prominent features of the marine environment all over the world. They are especially prominent in Pacific Northwest waters, where our species are among...
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WHITE PELICAN—ANOTHER SUCCESS STORY
Just as happened with their cousins the Brown Pelicans, American White Pelican populations fluctuated greatly during the 20th Century. Having bred at Moses Lake and probably Sprague Lake in the...
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BROWN PELICANS IN WASHINGTON
When I moved to Washington in 1967, Brown Pelicans were rare in the state. Formerly common and widespread on all coasts of the US, their populations had crashed over a period of decades. Only after...
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RETURN OF THE JUNCOS
People who feed birds in the Pacific Northwest look forward to the return of flocks of Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis) to their feeders every year. Great numbers of them descend on our towns and...
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