Street Smart Naturalist

Ever since I started work on my book about Puget Sound, Homewaters , I have wanted to travel in a boat down the length of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Last week I had the opportunity. It was wonderful. We entered the waterway from the north early morning on Monday, under overcast skies, easterly winds, a 10- to 15-foot swell, and a pleasant temperature. Our ship traveled at about 8 knots, slow enou...

Three years ago, I sent out a newsletter about the use of the word it to refer to animals . Now that I am more experienced with trying to meet this goal and to paying more attention to how people use it , I wanted to return to the subject. Based on recent articles and books I have read, the use of it is still rampant and the main way people indicate an animal, whether they know the animal’s sex or...

Rarely does one have the opportunity, or perhaps, challenge of standing face to face with a large, hairy, stiletto-horned beast. My wife and I did this week, high atop a rocky ridge. The encounter was a bit nerve wracking as a male mountain goat seemed unduly interested in us. (I assume he was a mature, as opposed to juvenile, male because males tend to be loners; by the way, males are known as bi...

We saw our first pika of the season. I didn’t expect to do so. We were on a bouldery debris slope at about 4,700 feet in elevation—ideal pika habitat—but the rocks were rimmed in snow, which had fallen the previous night. And, it was neither warm nor sunny; I was warm only because I had been hiking uphill for the past two plus miles. Yet, there atop a boulder, perched in the mighty glory of full p...

Many years ago, I started a book project about stories buried in Seattle. One of my favorites was the discovery during excavation for Light Rail of Yiddish newspapers, broken ceramics, and other artifacts 40 feet underground. That project eventually morphed into my book Too High and Too Steep , but one part of the story continued to intrigue me: what lies beneath the surface of Lake Union. Last we...

Over the past two weeks I have had the pleasure of visiting some less-than-favorable habitat. The first was a sort of pond under crackling power lines, the second a straightjacketed creek in the middle of a farmer’s field. Both times I was not alone; I was with scientists interested in fish, in particular, some of the most fascinating fish in Washington state. The pond is home to Olympic mudminnow...

Last weekend we ventured over the Cascade divide to the dry, east side of our fair state. We spent three nights in a sort of modified shed at Rimrock Lake, about 10 miles east of White Pass. Saturday morning, we woke to snow covering the trees perhaps a few hundred feet above us. Before we could walk out the door, snow began to fall at our shed. I do love spring in the Cascades. None of the snow s...

As has happened every year since 1981, we in the PNW noted the anniversary this week of the eruption of Mount St. Helens. At 8:32 AM on May 18, 1980, the mountain erupted for the first time since the 1850s. We couldn’t see the eruption from our house in Seattle but I have a vivid memory of watching the coverage on our black and white television. I was in awe of the seething mushroom cloud of ash a...

A poured concrete block the size of a Sprinter van is not something one normally finds in a river. Even less likely is finding an additional 21 such blocks strung across the length of a half mile wide flood plain. But such a location exists about four miles southeast of Auburn, Washington, on the White River. Not only do the massive piers, as they were described when built more than a century ago,...

With spring in the air and more and more people getting out and enjoying the loveliness, I thought I’d return to a scavenger hunt I put together several years ago. Not surprisingly, it’s a bit dorky but I hope that you will enjoy it and perhaps find some inspiration for further exploration. Although my knowledge is primarily Seattle biased and based, I feel confident that you can find these treasu...

Spring has long been my favorite season, primarily because the weather is so mutable. This week we topped 70 degrees, had fog and rain and a few sunbreaks, and some classic days of gray. Even better was the return of green as plants rioted out their leaves and flowers pushed out their advertisements seeking pollinators. Not to be outdone, birds were trilling and singing and calling and gracing the...

Birds are dinosaurs. “This is one of the greatest achievements in the history of paleontology,” writes Steve Brusatte, in his splendid new book, The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present . Tracing the evolution of the idea of the bird-dinosaur connection, as well as the actual evolution of birds, Brusatte reveals a complex, layered story that justifies his statem...

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of launching my newest book, Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal: A History and Guide . Written with my friend and Executive Director of HistoryLink.org , Jennifer Ott, the book tells the stories of one of the most pivotal landscape changes in Seattle history. It is published by the University of Washington Press and is an edited and updated version of our previous bo...

Do you know who produces super cute babies? Many animals, of course, but I was completely surprised to learn how über darling coot babies are. Unlike their parents, feathered darkly in gray and black with a white bill, the young sport a plumage of exuberant color. Fluffy black down accented with cadmium yellow highlights covers the back. Collaring the face are orange and flame red feathers. Toppin...

Marjorie and I had the opportunity to see a whale again (see Whale Tales for our previous whaling experience) the other day. We weren’t on a boat. In fact, we, weren’t near any water; the closest salt water was the Sea of Cortez, 200 miles west. We were amidst the stark landforms and plants of the Sonoran Desert, and the closest fresh water was our water bottle, which we relied on to combat the st...

My guess is that many urban dwellers, particularly in Seattle, have heard the sounds of Northern Flickers. With a rapid, rhythmic banging, the birds pound all sorts of surfaces to produce what one ornithologist described as the sound of a miniature pneumatic drill. In my neighborhood, I have seen flickers drilling trees, utility poles, and everyone’s favorite, some sort of metal surface, which pro...

Recently, I experienced a natural history phenomenon I haven’t in many years: Marjorie and I had to stop to wash the bugs off our windshield. We were in the Sonoran Desert driving east from Tucson, Arizona, on Interstate 10. About fifteen miles west of Wilcox, I heard a light thunk on the windshield, simultaneous with the appearance of the classic bug splat. Within another ten minutes, bodies pepp...

Last week, I had the honor and pleasure to be part of the King County Library System’s annual fundraising event: Literary Lions. The theme of the event was Love Letters to libraries. If it’s okay, I’d like to share my Love Letter. To all the libraries and librarians I have known: Thanks for the memories. To Ms. Bass, who helped me find books at the Henry Branch on Capitol Hill when I was a wee lad...

Twenty five years and five days ago, the earth shook in Seattle. Although the Big One didn’t hit that day, I doubt I will forget the seconds following 10:54 a.m. on that not-so-tranquil Wednesday, February 28, 2001. I had just picked up Audubon magazine at the University Bookstore (sadly no longer in existence) when the shaking began. It started slowly and gently, as if a large truck was passing o...

Recently, I had the good fortune to time travel back to when giants ruled the Earth. Well, sort of. I was down in Loreto, Mexico, and got to see the largest animals that have ever lived: blue whales. (By largest, this is in reference to heft and not to length, though there is some dispute about some fossilized beasts that may have outweighed the blue.) Like many northerners, blue whales take advan...

Nearly four years ago I sent a short email to my friend Emily White, Acquisitions Editor at Mountaineers Book: “Might you have 20 to 30 minutes to chat about a book idea in the next week or two?” Thus began a relationship for the book that has become In the Range of Fire and Ice: A Human and Natural History of Washington’s Cascades , which Mountaineers Books will publish in September 2026. I bring...

On a recent trip down to Tucson, we flew on Alaska Airlines. They were promoting their new mileage plan touting the changes and upgrades and wonderful reasons why one should join. All were, of course, terribly exciting; we couldn’t wait to sign up and be part of such an exclusive and thrilling program. Who wouldn’t want to join with their fellow members of the Titanium Level, especially if you lin...

In October of 2023, I published a newsletter about scientists using tree rings to date the Seattle Fault. I wrote: “It is a tour de force and beautiful example of science, taking a unique set of features and combining technology with old school-out-in-the-field, mucky, muddy detective work to answer an essential question.” Two members of the group, Pat Pringle and Bryan Black, along with USGS volc...

Last week, my wife and I and two pals of ours participated in one of the finer known BBB events , driving around the lower Stillaguamish, Skagit, and Samish river valleys looking for birds. We’ve been doing this regularly for the past half dozen plus years. It’s a pretty simple and satisfying day of sitting in a car, driving around, looking at birds, tallying up the numbers of a few choice species...

I hope you’ll indulge me with an off topic newsletter about an important event in my life. Thanks kindly. I recently gave away my old bike. It was the end of an era for me. For more than four decades, the lovely bike had served me well, taking me on trips ranging from short hops to the supermarket to an extended trip that covered more than 2,500 miles. I rode it at college, to many, many jobs, to...