Sea Birds Die Because of Algae Bloom

As reported by the Seattle Times, along Washington's coast at Neah Bay's Hobuck Beach in Clallam County, an overwhelming number of seabirds have been found dead due to toxic foam from an algae bloom. Said that the number of seabirds dead could easily exceed 10,000, it's all due to the foam from a mysterious algae bloom that has scientists and researchers mystified and worried.

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Common murres, scoters, loons and more, all are being killed in droves. The dead birds are not just being found on Hobuck Beach, it's the same on other beaches along the Washington coast. Huge numbers of dead birds have been documented by Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Teams (COASST), a citizen science project of the University of Washington, along the Kalaloch and LaPush beaches as well. This is reported to be the largest ever recorded kill of seabirds documented along the Washington coast.

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More locally, as reported this week in the Bellingham Herald in an article, "150 ducks found dead near Lynden", it is reported that the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating the death of 100 dead ducks, mostly mallards and pintails, found at Wiser Lake and 50 more dead ducks found near the Bylsma levee on the Nooksack River. While it is suspected that these duck deaths were due to a fungal infection caused from ingesting fermented barley at nearby farms, this is still tragic, scary and shocking news.

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Working with the COASST program locally, I have two beaches, Sucia South and Sucia North, which I am due to survey as soon as this latest bout of strong winds and torrential rains has subsided enough that I can safely walk those beaches during a low tide and not be knocked over by the waves. While my beaches are located along Washington's inner coast and protected by the San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island, recently our shellfish harvest was closed due to a local algae bloom known as Red Tide. I do not know what impact Red Tide might have on our sea birds, but Red Tide can paralyze, or even kill, if we eat shellfish from an infected beach.

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Currently, I am monitoring our local weather forecasts and tide charts, and will let you know what I discover during my surveys. I am hoping to find no dead birds, but after reading these latest articles, I just can't be sure.

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To read the full article in the Seattle Times, as reported by Lynda V. Mapes, follow this link - http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010165049_birds30m.html.

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The article from the Bellingham Herald, as reported by Isabelle Dills, can be found here - http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/1136381.html, and this same story as reported by Tim Flanagan for the Puget Sound Maritime, can be found here - http://www.pugetsoundmaritime.com/2009/10/150-ducks-found-dead-near-lynden/ .

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Jen's Snow

It sure looked a lot like winter in Denver today. My daughter took these photos this morning.

The snow doesn't phase them much in Denver - life goes on, work goes on. I remember one night when I lived there myself, I took a bus from downtown Denver to a park-n-ride in Aurora only to find all the cars buried in the snow. There was nothing but a row of big snow bubble cars in the dark. Once, someone had dug half of my car out, only to discover that it was not their car. They must have been on a bus earlier than mine so I did not get to witness their disappointment, but it sure saved me time when it came to locating my car that night. Next to my half-dug-out car was a big hole in the snow - a car snow bubble popped. What a relief it was to hear that they recently got brand new snow tires for Megan's car! You guys drive carefully, and remember to down shift . . .

October Garden

Soggy! Soggy is the first word that comes to my mind as best describing the current state of my Happy Valley garden. After a couple of weeks of rain, drizzle, fog, a light frost, several days of torrential rains followed by a few more with thunder showers, a heavy dew every morning and even more sprinkles, located in a lush little valley bordering a wetlands and year-round creek, I guess any garden would be soggy after all that. On the few days that we've had clear skies, and even on some where the sky was much less than clear, it seems I've been out cruising through the San Juan Islands on the Washington State ferries, meandering the streets of Friday Harbor with friends, touring wildlife rehabilitation facilities, combing our local beaches in response to calls about stranded harbor seals and surveying yet other beaches to document beached birds. There really is no wonder why I feel a little behind in my October gardening chores. At least my new blueberry bushes still look great!

I was hoping that the giant sunflowers left standing after the heavy winds and rains would have the chance to fully ripen so they could provide a snack for the birds left behind over the winter, but that's not going to happen after all.

Sorry, winter birds. It seems that our rainy season has gotten the best of even the sunflowers. Even though some of their flowers were fourteen feet up in the air, there was a thick mold beginning to spread over their immature seeds.

So now, what was a giant stand of sunflowers has been reduced to a little bed covered with straw. I think I'll plant pole beans there next year.

It's certainly not as pretty as it was in my garden just a few weeks or a month ago, hardly even green for that matter, but it's still a very pleasant, peaceful place to be. There are fancy carrots - yellow, white, purple and even orange ones - and some hybrid yellow beets still in the ground, and certainly lots of very hardy and colorful Swiss Chard. So when we've grown tired of the slightly less than garden fresh vegetables available in our local markets this winter, I know we'll still have that little stash of our very own fresh-grown veggies to savor.

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Friday Harbor

It's always fun to cruise on one of the Washington State ferries through the San Juan Islands. On board the Elwa (yes, the very same ferry boat on which some of us Contra dance during the annual Ferry Boat Contra Dance Party each summer), this time, I traveled with friends from the Whatcom Marine Mammal Stranding Network (WMMSN).Our destination was Friday Harbor on San Juan Island for the release of three rehabilitated harbor seal pups and a tour of the Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. One of the harbor seals ready for release was Chitenango. In July, when barely a week old, he was found abandoned and starving on a beach on Lummi Island. He was rescued by WMMSN and sent to Wolf Hollow to be cared for until he was strong enough to fend for himself in the wild. This was his day - he was being set free along with two other seals that had been under the care of Wolf Hollow.

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Harbor seal pups released on San Juan Island.

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After the harbor seals had been set free, we drove to Holf Hollow for a tour of their 40-acre wildlife rehabilitation facility.

Including a juvenile bald eagle, a red-tailed hawk, a barred owl, several infant river otters, black-tailed deer fawns, some infant grey and flying squirrels, infant racoons, harbor seal pups, even a carter snake, they currently have 6 birds, 40 different mamals and one reptile in their care. Accepting only native wild animals, the devoted staff at Wolf Hollow nurses the injured, orphaned or ill animals in a very natural setting until they are ready for release back into the wild.

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Wolf Hollow tour.

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After visiting Wolf Hollow, we had time to meander the streets of Friday Harbor before boarding the ferry back to Anacortes, even stopping for food and beverage with the locals at Herb's Tavern.

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Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington.

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The map of our route.

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Friday Harbor Bound

Check it out, I'm Friday Harbor bound! I'm off to Friday Harbor with a group of friends from the Whatcom Marine Mammal Stranding Network (WMMSN) for the release of Chitenango and two other harbor seals. Chitenango was found abandoned on a beach on Lummi Island the end of July. He was dehydrated and growing more thin each day so was sent to be cared for at the Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. He is now doing well and ready to be released back into the wild.
Christi Spangler of our WMMSN stranding response team took this picture of Chitenango when he was found stranded on the beach prior to his being sent to rehab at Wolf Hollow. He was thought to be barely over 14 pounds at that time. Reported to be 49.8 pounds on October 9th, let's see if you will be able to recognize him in the video and photos we'll be taking tomorrow!

It warms my heart to be able to work with wildlife rehab centers like Wolf Hollow because I know that without their help many of the stranded seal pups reported to marine mammal stranding networks would never get this second chance. Follow the link to read more about his story - http://wmmsn.blogspot.com/2009/10/chitenango-rehabilitated-and-ready-for.html.

First Frost

Looking down from the third floor window at that first frost on the lawn, I thought the garden would have been hit much harder. I figured I'd be out there pulling up lots of dead stuff, but instead I picked raspberries.

Then dug some potatoes.

And picked colorful stems of buds from my bed of snapdragons. The frost had nipped the last of the life from the cucumber vines that remained in my garden, so I removed those; but clearly, some plants were more tolerant of the frost than others. With straw, I mulched around my new blueberry bushes to give them a little more protection from the upcoming winter. Then I placed a layer of straw over the soil where the potatoe plants had been.

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I don't know what to do with my garlic. It has been growing since mid-summer, but in checking under the soil, it has yet to form cloves around its main root bulb. I guess I'll just leave it in the ground for the winter. Perhaps it will rot.

A pretty day even with the frost, and rain is in our forecast for the next ten. I certainly could have worked longer in my garden, but decided all looked well enough to leave until after the rain and wind has come - and gone again.

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More garden pics from our first frost.

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Beached Birds

My Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) materials have arrived and I'm off to check my beach in preparation for monthly beached-bird surveys along Neptune Beach.

COASST, a cooperative effort made up of volunteers, local environmental organizations, scientists and students at the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's (NOAA's) Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, uses "citizen science" to track the deposition of beached bird carcasses along the coast of the Pacific Northwest to help monitor our marine ecosystem health. In our six-hour COASST training, we learned how to identify beached birds through careful examination of just a bird foot or wing specimen using their Beached Bird Field Guide.

Nicknamed "Dead Birds for Dummies", it really is easy to identify the bird with this thorough reference guide. By following the easy-to-use keys in their book, we quickly identified that this was the wing of a large immature gull.

Now, with the training completed and the COASST materials in hand, I will perform monthly surveys on a two mile stretch of shore along Neptune Beach. Considered a priority spot by COASST since they have historical data associated with this beach, this stretch of beach is filled with houses with many of those homes on Tribal property. In reading the historical beach characteristics reports for my beach, it was reported that Tribal fishers are allowed to gillnet out of their back doors and the previous surveyors reported having rescued a loon that was found tangled in one of those nets. The Northern most portion of my beach ends abruptly at a boundary of riprap at the edge of the Cherry Point Oil Refinery property.

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More photos from the COASST training, survey materials and a sneak peak at my survey beach.

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We'll see what kind of interesting discoveries I make during my monthly beached-bird surveys.

Tulips and Hyacinths

While picking up a bale of straw to use as a winter mulch for some of the perennials in my Happy Valley garden, I started thinking about those dreary, overcast, rainy, snowy, cold, blustery, icy days we always seem to have in January and February.

With a goal of brightening those days for myself, and for some of my friends, I selected lots of pretty tulip and hyacinth bulbs to force into winter blooms. Back in my garden, I filled pots full of bulbs promising fringed red and white tulip blossoms.

Then I filled even more pots with colorful hyacinth bulbs.

After giving them a good watering, I placed the pots in between some of the perennials that needed mulching for the winter.

Next step was simply to cover that area with layers of straw.

Now, all I have to do is wait. The potted bulbs need to be exposed to temperatures of 40 to 45 degrees Fahreinheit for twelve to sixteen weeks so they can grow roots and start their flower development. I'll begin checking them after twelve weeks. Once signs of root growth and small, pale shoots are visible, I'll move some of the pots to a location where they will receive low to medium light and is at least 50 to 60 degrees Fahreinheit. After four or five days, their shoots will turn green and I can bring the pots on inside. With bright light, within three to four weeks they'll be blooming. By removing only a couple of pots every couple of weeks from the cold-storage, mulched area of my garden, we can enjoy a succession of blooms throughout the coldest part of winter.

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More pics of forcing bulbs and today's garden.

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Iowa State University published a wonderful horticulture guide on forcing bulbs - Publication-Forcing Bulbs-PM1319.pdf. Their guide provides easy how-to instruction on forcing several different varieties of bulbs, and includes a list of bulbs recommended for forcing.

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Suddenly, winter doesn't sound so bad.

A Pretty Pink-Tipped Sea Anemone

Here's a photo of a sea anemone I saw in a tidepool on a rainy beach while out on a call about a harbor seal for the Whatcom Marine Mammal Stranding Network (WMMSN).First said to be at Marine Park, that's where I started my search for the seal. Turned out though, I really needed to be on a beach south of Post Point. But, before my hike down the railroad tracks to gain access to the trail that would take me to that beach, I was delighted to spot this pink-tipped sea anemone. Surrounded by sea cauliflower, it was showing itself off so pretty in the little stream that was running out of the Post Point Lagoon.

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Even though it was a drizzly afternoon, it really was quite pleasant to be out on the trails and on the beach. Here are more of the photos I took while there.

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Unfortunately, the harbor seal had been injured (a boat strike) and was dead. I won't be posting those photos here, but contact me if you would like to learn more about that seal. For now, the photos have been sent in with the appropriate paperwork for entry into a national database for NOAA. Maybe they'll be included in some sort of report some day.

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For more information about the WMMSN, visit our Facebook page at - Whatcom-Marine-Mammal-Stranding-Network-Facebook. Or visit our website at - http://www.wmmsn.org/. We also have a blog now too. Our blog includes a summary of our activities from this last summer. You can find the WMMSN blog here - http://wmmsn.blogspot.com/.