Two new birds to end my year: an unusually marked sapsucker and a Belted Kingfisher.
We spotted these on Christmas Eve, near Duck Pond at the northern end of the Arboretum.

It was a handy coincidence that Union Bay Watch was on hand to take photos, and then to do a bit of research. According to Larry:
"It seems to me that this 2019 bird is most likely a hybrid between a Red-breasted and a Red-naped Sapsucker. However, the black mask surrounding the eye is rather puzzling. None of the four species of sapsuckers in North America have such a complete mask of black around the eyes. Three of the four have a black eye stripe running between white highlights, similar to the Red-naped Sapsucker. The Red-breasted Sapsucker is the exception. This 2019 bird appears to be a unique individual. The black mask around the eye appears to be personal variation. Maybe this is how a new species begins. If this bird's unique DNA is passed on maybe someday its progeny will form another species. They might even be called, Black-masked Sapsuckers."

​How cool is that? 
​Happy Bird Year 2020!

*** I may have neglected my blog this year, but not my bird friends! ***
​Project FeedWatch started in November and I have once again purchased a winter's supply of chili pepper suet. If you enjoy feeding the birds, but not the challenge of outsmarting squirrels, you will be delighted to find out that birds have evolved to eat chili pepper seeds and they are a harmless deterrent to suet-loving squirrels. 

Project FeederWatch
 100 common feeder birds have been cross-referenced on what they like to eat and where they like to eat it;  explore your region to see what you might be able to attract to your feeder this winter:
Common Feeder Birds

Seven Simple Actions to Help Birds
Small changes in the way you buy groceries and products, drink coffee, and garden will yield great rewards for your local ecosystem, as well as promoting fair-trade farmers across the world.
Nurture Nature.

It feels like autumn here in Seattle, and even though we most likely will have another round of warmish weather, it is the time of year when people are getting busy raking and tidying up for winter. This year, I would like to invite you to consider taking a less vigorous approach to cutting back your grasses and raking and composting leaves and fallen branches. Check out these tips from Audubon on how to enhance your backyard this fall to encourage more wildlife action.

Backyard birders: be sure to sign up for Project Feederwatch, This year's poster is a limited edition poster of backyard Hawks and Falcons of North America.  

If online learning is one of your passions, I suggest one of these Cornell Lab of Ornithology self-paced courses. Or, for a free quick fix:, check out their videos.

Wishing you lots of daydreaming and playtime in your backyard and neighborhood this fall!

Have you ever found a cool bug in your backyard, tried to I.D. it, and been frustrated because you could not find it in any of your field guides, in a google image search, or even in BugGuide.net?

Do not despair, as you are not alone! As you may know, insects are the most numerous animal life form on the planet, comprising about 85% of terrestrial animals. Not only that, insects come in all shapes and sizes, and do magic called metamorphosis after being nymphs or molting their hard exoskeletons as they move through instars on their way to sexual maturity.

"Arthropods are a highly-successful group of invertebrate animals that includes insects, centipedes, millipedes, spiders, mites, horseshoe crabs, scorpions, and crustaceans. In terms of species diversity, arthropods are second to none. That there are in excess of one million arthropods species that have been identified by scientists and there are estimated to be many millions that have not yet been identified. Scientists estimate there may be a staggering 30 million species of arthropods alive today, the vast majority of which are insects."

The insect world is currently divided into 32 orders. The largest order, the beetles (Coleoptera), contains more than 370,000 species. Other major orders are moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera, 150,000 species), bees, wasps, and ants (Hymenoptera, 120,000 species), flies (Diptera, 100,000 species), and bugs (Hemiptera, 80,000 species).

To make mystery bug I.D. even harder, remember that all insects go through metamorphosis-which means that most of them look completely different from adults when they are in their immature stages as larvae and instars-making it quite a puzzle to identify them, since field guides and websites often only show images of the adult stages of many insects.

For example, take mystery bug #1, found by my friend Lorene in her West Seattle garden:
after three fails (which included an image search, googling "green ladybug",  and BugGuide.net), I  googled "Seattle pest insects" and found a P-Patch reference document from the Seattle Dept. of Neighborhoods, that told me all about the invasive Green Stinkbug, which were first reported in Seattle in 2014.
Bingo! Lorene's bug turned out to be the 5th instar stage of the Southern Green Stinkbug Nezara Viridula. She found this insect alongside lots of little tiny black bugs (2nd/3rd instar) on a Dalia leaf, never before seen in her garden.

The thing to remember, when taking care of your backyard, is that often times immature stages of beneficial insects look very different from the adults. Be sure to be gentle when you are weeding and tidying up your garden for the winter, as many caterpillars overwinter in the grasses, leaves, shrubs, and woodpiles. These are your butterfly nurseries. If you do find a "pest" insect, such as the Green Stinkbug, please contact the Garden Hotline:  help@gardenhotline.org or call 206-633-0224.

"The birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees"...
Ah yes, spring! One of the questions many people have is how exactly do birds make babies?

Bird sex: to begin--most male birds do not have a penis
There are almost 10,000 species of birds and only around 3% have a penis. All of our male songbirds, eagles, hawks, gulls, cranes, owls, pigeons, hummingbirds and woodpeckers do not have a penis. Flamingos, penguins, and albatrosses have also completely lost their penises. Birds with penises include ducks, geese and swans, and large flightless birds like ostriches and emus.

In the kingdom of aves, 97% of male and female birds have what's known as a cloaca; the cloaca is a multipurpose internal chamber that ends in an opening used for discharging sperm or eggs. It is the only opening for the digestive, reproductive, and urinary tracts.

Springtime antics of songbird mating may include the male showing off his clever dance moves,  singing repertoire, and feather displays, along with loop-de-loops, gifts of food or trinkets, and general lovebird tom-foolery. If the female is receptive, eventually she will land, shift her tail feathers to the side, and the male bird will swoop in for a swift tail-to-tail "kiss" as their swollen cloaca bump together for the transfer of sperm (above photo). If you have ever been lucky enough to witness the cloacal kiss, you know that if you blink you will miss it.

Our backyard birdhouses have housed many families of songbirds over the last 20 years, and this year we have a birdhouse full of tiny chickadees. YAY!

Chickadees usually lay 6-8 dime-size eggs in a soft downy nest constructed by the female. Mother birds sit on their eggs for 12-13 days, and then for two weeks after they hatch, both parents work long hours to feed the voracious nestlings. We enjoy watching the adults fly in with a beak full of food, perch in the Stewardia tree and call, wing in to the "bee-peep" of the babies to deposit the grub, and then leave with a white fecal sack-keeping the downy nest clean and tidy. 

Kristen Martyn, from Wild Birds Unlimited reported that "Research by Doug Tallajmy (entomologist at the University of Delaware) found that one pair of chickadees delivered food once every 3 minutes to their nest. Estimating that they forage during the hours of 6 am- 8 pm (entirely realistic during nesting season) means they make approximately 390-570 trips with insects to the nest each day. Hatchlings are in the nest for approximately 14-18 days. This number does not include the insects required once the young ones fledge, but are still cared for by their parents for another 1-2 weeks." That is a lot of worms, bugs, berries, and seeds! No wonder the parent birds are looking raggedy. 

I am guessing that our nestlings are almost two weeks old, as we can see their tiny black heads as they peek out of the birdhouse. They will be fledging soon. 

Can you spot our birdhouse nestled in the bay laurel?
Chickadees prefer a home that is 65% shaded and has an unobstructed flight path to the entrance. 

In March I visited Hudson, Wisconsin and was amazed to see not just gray squirrels cavorting in the woods behind my mom's new home, but also a white squirrel. What the heck? Time for a bit of Inquiry research! (updated July 2019)

Nobody seemed to know too much about them--except that they were regulars in the neighborhood and they were considered to be (silver-haired) retired squirrels. Since then, my mom has spotted two white squirrels plus a black squirrel in her backyard, and I too have seen both versions on subsequent visits. I also was able to sneak up close enough to see the eye color of the white squirrel on my most recent visit,  so...

 I present to you my findings (and updates) and advice on:

Sources: UntamedScience * AnimalSake * Maryland DNR

Rob Nelson, squirrelologist for Untamed Science, talks about his research and findings=enjoy

Every morning for the month of May, Grow Wild is sending me a sweet botanical illustration 
of a common weed along with articles regarding our ever-changing relationship with these remarkable (and mostly unappreciated) species of the plant world. 

Sign up here to receive your own stunning botanical illustrations plus links to weed-related topics such as: weeds in literature and history, weeds as food security, why weeds matter to pollinators, and perhaps most importantly: what weeds mean to gardeners.

June update: all weedy blog posts can be found here: https://www.growwilduk.com/wildflowers/learn-about-wildflowers/what-weed-anyway/can-weeds-be-beautiful

This encyclopedic 656-page tome is available here as a paperback or kindle...
​(and it will certainly keep me from weeding my front slope of dandelions for another week or two!)   

©EarthJustice.org

It is spring and I have soil on my mind: we've just received another load of wood chips and organic manure. Additionally, we have turned our compost barrel and now have a chocolate fudge of goodness to bestow on our garden boxes. We've been eating asparagus all week and baked our first rhubarb crisp of the season. Our arugula and kale survived the snows and our herbs continue to be year-round producers.

With all this organic goodness happening in my yard, it saddens me to read that the EPA is refusing to ban the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos-even though the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the pesticide completely off the market last summer. The EPA is fighting that decision. "Several studies have linked prenatal exposure of chlorpyrifos to lower birth weights, lower IQs, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other developmental issues in children. But the EPA in 2017 ignored the conclusions of its scientists and rejected a proposal made during the Obama administration to ban its use in fields and orchards." Hawaii was the first state to pass a full ban last year. Now California, Oregon, New York and Connecticut are trying to do the same. I hope that they are successful and that this poison is fully banned from use soon.
​
Other bad news on the food front: from Carolyn Fortuna, PhD at Clean Technica
"It is becoming increasingly apparent that a yeast called Candida auris (C. auris) has resistance that is traceable to industrial agriculture’s mass application of fungicides. These chemicals approximate the molecular structures of antifungal drugs and that of many other fungi species. This yeast is killing immunocompromised patients in hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes at a fast pace — up to 40-60% of those who suffer bloodstream infections now die in a month’s time. The reason for the rise in patient deaths is agricultural applications, which generate drug resistance across multiple human bacterial infections. This drug resistance kills 23,000-100,000 in the US annually. If you extend that death toll to global infections, we’re looking at 700,000 people worldwide." Read the full article

©Civil Eats

Some good news? Dung Beetles are awesome! Virginia Gewin of Civil Eats reports:
In 2013, Matt Jones, a doctoral student from Washington State University, approached dozens of West Coast produce farmers, both organic and conventional, with an unusual request. He wanted them to apply pig feces to broccoli fields to study whether dung beetles and other soil organisms were able to reduce food-borne pathogens.

While roughly 50 farmers declined, ironically because it introduced too much risk to their operation, the 43 farms that took part in the experiment helped demonstrate that greater biodiversity, including both dung beetles and soil microbial communities, suppressed E. coli and other harmful pathogens. In addition, a seven-day laboratory experiment revealed that two dung beetle species reduced E. coli numbers by over 90 percent and nearly 50 percent, respectively. Read full article here.

I still find it hard to believe that ANYONE thinks it is a good idea to use poisons to grow food. I say "Bring on the Dung Beetles!"