I just came in from cleaning the bird baths and checking out the ground seed that the birds at the feeder sometimes toss when they feed. This gives the ground feeders their snacks and tasty meals. I plan to go out, when it warms up later today, to rake the seed husks, bird feces and wet seed…
CORVALLIS — When winter comes and the menu for birds shrinks in urban backyards, they rely on the kindness of humans.
CORVALLIS — Wisteria delivers a beautiful spring display, but this vigorous vine needs plenty of pruning to keep it from swallowing the garden.
One of the rarities that has been seen by many, many birders is still here! At least at the time of writing! It stayed for the Christmas Bird Count and long afterwards it was still being observed in the Nahcotta area. We see large numbers of marbled godwit on the Peninsula, but we seldom see…
Washington State University entomologist Jennifer Andreas plans to soon petition the USDA to allow a non-native insect be turned loose on an invasive weed that she calls, respectfully, "a beast."
We had a successful 121st Christmas Bird Count in the Leadbetter Circle on Saturday, Dec. 19, despite covid-19 precautions. At least all of our routes were covered by our 14 participants.
The bad news? There’s sure been a lot of rain. The good news? There’s sure been a lot of rain.
PENINSULA — A 6.8-foot male striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) washed ashore on the Long Beach Peninsula around 11:30 a.m. Jan. 3.
CORVALLIS — Just when you’re ready for a long winter’s nap, it’s time to tend your fruit trees.
“Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you Alllllll!”
Mid-December to the first week in January is always an exciting time for birders. Annual Christmas bird counts are being held at this time all over most of the world. The CBC or Christmas Bird Count in the western hemisphere is administered by the National Audubon Society.
CORVALLIS — If you can’t garden, why not read about it? Books bring us comfort when the gloomy weather of winter is upon us. Even gardeners who love winter enjoy a good read.
OLYMPIA — Recreational Dungeness crab fishing has closed in Willapa Bay and remain closed in Grays Harbor, while crab fisheries on the Washington coast north of Point Chehalis will reopen, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife shellfish managers announced Dec. 22.
Every year around Thanksgiving we begin to anticipate the arrival of trumpeter swans on the Peninsula. I like to think of Black lake as swan lake because this is one place where they find refuge until it is time to begin their move northward to the tundra where they breed. Well, they arrived…
OLYMPIA — The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission will offer two free days in January, when visitors to state parks will not need a Discover Pass for day-use visits.
Way back in 2016 I wrote an article about the Great One — the largest of the egrets, called the great egret!
Memories: The crisp smell of late autumn was in the air, and the alder trees were dropping sodden leaves from thin dangling branches. Months before, these same deciduous trees flared from ruby red buds into radiant green leaves. Below the bare trees, a river raced through, twisting and gougi…
ILWACO — A budding fly fishing business is busy setting up shop in Ilwaco, with grand intentions to grow into one of the biggest distributors in the world.
WASHINGTON COAST — New restrictions went into effect on Dec.14 for the coastal steelhead fishery after weeks of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife pondering how to handle the fisheries’ continued shortcomings.
CORVALLIS — When winter comes and the menu for birds shrinks in urban backyards, they rely on the kindness of humans.
CORVALLIS — Wisteria delivers a beautiful spring display, but this vigorous vine needs plenty of pruning to keep it from swallowing the garden.
One of the rarities that has been seen by many, many birders is still here! At least at the time of writing! It stayed for the Christmas Bird Count and long afterwards it was still being obser…
Washington State University entomologist Jennifer Andreas plans to soon petition the USDA to allow a non-native insect be turned loose on an invasive weed that she calls, respectfully, "a beast."
We had a successful 121st Christmas Bird Count in the Leadbetter Circle on Saturday, Dec. 19, despite covid-19 precautions. At least all of our routes were covered by our 14 participants.
The bad news? There’s sure been a lot of rain. The good news? There’s sure been a lot of rain.
PENINSULA — A 6.8-foot male striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) washed ashore on the Long Beach Peninsula around 11:30 a.m. Jan. 3.
CORVALLIS — Just when you’re ready for a long winter’s nap, it’s time to tend your fruit trees.
“Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you Alllllll!”
Mid-December to the first week in January is always an exciting time for birders. Annual Christmas bird counts are being held at this time all over most of the world. The CBC or Christmas Bird…
CORVALLIS — If you can’t garden, why not read about it? Books bring us comfort when the gloomy weather of winter is upon us. Even gardeners who love winter enjoy a good read.
OLYMPIA — Recreational Dungeness crab fishing has closed in Willapa Bay and remain closed in Grays Harbor, while crab fisheries on the Washington coast north of Point Chehalis will reopen, Was…
Every year around Thanksgiving we begin to anticipate the arrival of trumpeter swans on the Peninsula. I like to think of Black lake as swan lake because this is one place where they find refu…
OLYMPIA — The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission will offer two free days in January, when visitors to state parks will not need a Discover Pass for day-use visits.
Way back in 2016 I wrote an article about the Great One — the largest of the egrets, called the great egret!
Memories: The crisp smell of late autumn was in the air, and the alder trees were dropping sodden leaves from thin dangling branches. Months before, these same deciduous trees flared from ruby…
ILWACO — A budding fly fishing business is busy setting up shop in Ilwaco, with grand intentions to grow into one of the biggest distributors in the world.
WASHINGTON COAST — New restrictions went into effect on Dec.14 for the coastal steelhead fishery after weeks of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife pondering how to handle the…
ILWACO — Pacific County’s popular recreational Dungeness crab fishery remains mostly open after test results released Dec. 11 found crab inside the Columbia River and Willapa Bay are within sa…
OLYMPIA — Effective Dec. 9, recreational Dungeness crab fisheries on the Washington coast south of the Queets River will close due to elevated marine toxin levels, state shellfish managers announced.
First, a “big thank you” to the readers of this column who have been sending me photos, observations and/or comments on the Long Beach Peninsula birds. Anna’s hummingbirds have been on many pe…
OLYMPIC COAST — Portland State University researchers and their collaborators at the Quinault Indian Nation and Oregon State University found microplastics in Pacific razor clams on Washington…
INCHELIUM — Washington State University Extension is working to revitalize a true native that’s never really gotten a time to shine.
A large yellow-bellied flycatcher with a rather large bill, yellow breast and greenish back has been visiting the Ilwaco area since the last week in October. As of Nov. 16, the tropical kingbi…
CORVALLIS — We’re running right into the holidays, daylight is in short supply and rain comes down days at a time, but if you can get out in the garden or at least the garage, you’ll be happie…
There is nothing so lovely as a tree especially if it is decorated with a flock of birds, a pair or even a single bird.
CORVALLIS — Reality can get skewed when there are so many sources of information — books, magazines, newspapers, nurseries and, most of all, the internet and social media open up lots of room …
LONG BEACH — The rain was coming in steady sheets for several hours before they started their search.
When I first began coming to the Long Beach Peninsula in the 1970s one of my bucket list birds was the band-tailed pigeon. It wasn’t until I bought a place and began to spend as much time as I…
Nature is amazing, beautiful, educational and interesting. Now that cameras are readily available to most people, it seems like everyone is taking photos including pictures of wildlife.
The department has destroyed one nest, containing about 500 hornets in various life stages. It suspects there are at least several more nests in northwest Washington.
ILWACO — Busy off-season boat preparations for upcoming recreational and commercial fisheries are well underway at the Port of Ilwaco Boatyard.
A new study finds that removal of dams on the Columbia-Snake river system isn't likely to improve Chinook salmon survival, because salmon survival rates are similar in other regions. Researche…
Every fall, research results and predictions on the presence and movement of winter finches and other winter species in North America is published in both Canada and the United States. It appe…
CORVALLIS — When trees get dressed with the colors of fall, it’s time to go shopping.
The Steller’s jay, one of the corvids, is also considered to intelligent and can no doubt think about what they know just like the common raven. It is native to western North America and is th…
OLYMPIA — Washington's ocean beaches will remain closed to razor clam harvest through at least Nov. 12 after test results on razor clams dug at Long Beach indicate levels of domoic acid that e…
CORVALLIS — In fall, gardeners settle bulbs under a blanket of soil and wait for spring to watch them flaunt their beauty.
On Oct. 9, Dan and Sharron Luckey of Ocean Park were visited by an accidental tourist, namely the rose-breasted grosbeak. As you can see on the map the range of the rose-breasted grosbeak does…
PENINSULA — Health officials hit the pause button on fall razor clam digging on Oct. 21 because samples taken from outer coast beaches are trending toward having too much marine toxin.
Just daylight, and the bay is ebbing, exposing shoals and sloughs and a vast array of waterways that weave like pulsing arteries through the shallows of what was once called Shoalwater Bay. An…
Fall is here, and Washington’s black bears are stocking up fat reserves for winter hibernation.
CORVALLIS — Just as we begin to think about wrapping things up in the garden for the season, slugs slither out of their homes underground to lay their eggs for next year.
American crows and common ravens belong to the group of birds called corvids. Thus, they are related and, therefore, similar.
LONG BEACH and OCEAN PARK — Shellfish managers have approved six more days of razor clam digging starting Oct. 16 after marine toxin tests showed the clams are safe to eat.
Some birds have names that are often hard to fathom. They don’t seem quite right. The ring-necked duck, for example, has an obvious ring on its bill, but not on its neck. The orange-crowned wa…
ILWACO — There is probably no better place to social distance than on a small boat in the ocean. But you do have to go into port occasionally, provided it’s not closed. The risks and unknowns …
Many of us often see birds that we don’t recognize. The question is, what can the bird tell us to help identify it correctly. “Birding 101” as I like to call it, indicates that there are four …
LONG BEACH — Skate egg casings have been washing in and raising questions among beach users, Tiffany Boothe of the Seaside Aquarium said Sept. 28.
PULLMAN — Researchers at Washington State University have predicted how and where the Asian giant hornet, an invasive newcomer to the Pacific Northwest, popularly dubbed the “murder hornet,” c…
Razor clamming on Clatsop County beaches reopens Oct. 1.
CORVALLIS — Squeezed by changing ocean conditions that limit their food options and the long-term loss of old forest needed for nesting, marbled murrelets would benefit most from conservation …
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