While many species may come to mind with the term ‘urban wildlife’, otters are not likely among the first to come to mind. Despite this, they can be seen in urban areas. In fact in three of the last cities I’ve called home, I’ve seen River Otters in two of them. River Otters can be [...]
This week’s Friday Film is An Original DUCKumentary, from Nature on PBS. Ducks are some of the most common and visible of urban wildlife. this episode will reveal much about these birds. From the PBS website: Masters of the water and air, they have conquered the globe. From deft dabblers to great divers, these are one [...]
This is an excerpt from my latest post at the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog. Click the link below to visit the full post. Perhaps you live in the city, or you’re visiting for a conference, family or vacation. We’re all nature fiends here and we need our nature fix. Even those who are not self [...]
Today’s Friday Film is by John Dunstan whose excellent short films were featured in previous posts, Short Film:: Wild Jersey City and ‘The Secret Life of….my small urban backyard’ in a past Foragings. He’s back with a new short film, one in a series building from the bottom up on the food chain. This one [...]
Common Name: American Wigeon Scientific Name: Anas americana Family: Anatidae The American Wigeon is a dabbling duck, which are ducks that tip their front ends into the water to forage while their back ends stick up in the air. They maintain a large geographic range, breeding as far north as the Bering Sea and wintering from Canada [...]
Common Name: Eight-spotted Skimmer Scientific Name: Libellula forensis Family: Libellulidae The Eight-spotted Skimmer is a common urban dragonfly that can be found in many parks, wetlands and other landscapes with water. Their range includes the Pacific Northwest, northern California and east to the Rockies. The Skimmer family is the largest odonate family and also among the dragonflies [...]
The Friday Film this week looks at the topic of pollination with a TED talk from cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg. In this brief talk he presents footage from his film, Wings of Life which features incredible imagery of hummingbirds, bats, bees and other pollinators. From the TED website: Pollination: it’s vital to life on Earth, but largely unseen by [...]
This is an excerpt from my latest post at the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog. Click the link below to visit the full post. Just what exactly is in a name of our flora and fauna? Quite a bit as it happens. I’ve long been very interested in the names of things. My first [...]
This Friday Film is a fascinating episode of Nature from PBS titled, A Murder of Crows. The episode explores the intelligence of crows around the world and focuses on a new study by John Marzluff, author of In the Company of Crows and Ravens, which shows that crows can even recognize human faces. This urban bird continues to [...]
Crows are everywhere, throughout the world, but in Seattle they seem to have a special place of their own. The humble crow is abundant in Seattle, but unlike House Sparrows or Starlings, they warrant a lot of attention. You could eat at Crow Restaurant, buy a yacht from Crow’s Nest Yachts, schedule a treatment at [...]
In the latest installment of Friday Film we look at a short film titled Life Nature You by Myles Thompson. This film reminds us that wildlife is everywhere, even in a small patch of lawn in a suburban yard. The filmmakers daughter discovered the tiny wildlife in her lawn and created a small nature reserve to [...]
Common Name: Pacific Treefrog Scientific Name: Pseudacris regilla Family: Hylidae or Pseudacris (under debate) The most widespread and abundant frog in the Pacific Northwest, the Pacific Treefrog is also known as the Chorus Frog because they are one of the few frogs in the region which are often heard. Occurring from British Columbia south to Baja California, they also [...]