Tag Archive | Mount Vernon Washington

Aurora Borealis

May14

A once in a lifetime show

May 14, 2024

Once in a lifetime event… Eaglemont, Mount Vernon, Washington May 10, 2024. Photo by the author.

Known as the Carrington Event, the solar storm of September 1-2, 1859, was the first time scientists had connected a solar flare with the appearance of the aurora borealis.

Two British astronomers, Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson, independently witnessed the huge September 1st solar flare through telescopes and Carrington, after whom the Carrington Event is named, sketched his observations.

Astronomers everywhere were, no doubt, excited by this discovery.

From the Infallible Wikipedia:

“The geomagnetic storm is thought to have been initiated by a major CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) that traveled directly toward Earth, taking 17.6 hours to make the 150-million-kilometre (93-million-mile) journey. Typical CMEs take several days to arrive at Earth, but it is believed that the relatively high speed of this CME was made possible by a prior CME, perhaps the cause of the large aurora event on 29 August that ‘cleared the way’ of ambient solar wind plasma for the Carrington Event.

By Richard Carrington – Page 540 of the Nov-Dec, 2007 issue of American Scientist (volume 95), Public Domain, Link

Just before noon on 1 September 1859, the English amateur astronomers Richard Christopher Carrington and Richard Hodgson independently recorded the earliest observations of a solar flare. Carrington and Hodgson compiled independent reports which were published side by side in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and exhibited their drawings of the event at the November 1859 meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Because of a geomagnetic solar flare effect (a ‘magnetic crochet’) observed in the Kew Observatory magnetometer record by Scottish physicist Balfour Stewart, and a geomagnetic storm observed the following day, Carrington suspected a solar-terrestrial connection. Worldwide reports of the effects of the geomagnetic storm of 1859 were compiled and published by American mathematician Elias Loomis, which support the observations of Carrington and Stewart.”

Up until Friday, May 10, 2024, there had only been ten additional northern light displays which were of a magnitude similar to the 1859 Carrington event. The Infallible Wikipedia continues:

“Another strong solar storm occurred in February 1872. Less severe storms also occurred in 1921 (this was comparable by some measures), 1938, 1941, 1958, 1959 and 1960, when widespread radio disruption was reported. The flares and CMEs of the August 1972 solar storms were similar to the Carrington event in size and magnitude, however unlike the 1859 storms, they did not cause an extreme geomagnetic storm. The March 1989 geomagnetic storm knocked out power across large sections of Quebec, while the 2003 Halloween solar storms registered the most powerful solar explosions ever recorded. On 23 July 2012, a “Carrington-class” solar superstorm (solar flare, CME, solar electromagnetic pulse) was observed, but its trajectory narrowly missed Earth. The May 2024 solar storms are the most recent historic geomagnetic storms, with auroras being sighted as far south as Puerto Rico.”

I cannot recall when, exactly, I first learned that there was such a thing as the Northern Lights. What I do know is that I’ve had a long simmering desire to see them ‘just once’ during my lifetime.

Wings of an angel… Northern Lights May 10, 2024. Photo by the author.

On a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska, in March 2017, I thought for sure that dream would come true. Alas, it did not. There have been other times when there was a possibility but, despite staying up and attempting to see them from time to time, it never happened.

That was true until this past Friday when the weather and solar winds finally aligned.

As a geek who loves anything to do with sciency stuff like stars, eclipses, equinoxes, solstices, snow storms, and windstorms, I’ve covered all of the above in the pages of my Tuesday Newsday blog over the past eight years.

The dancing lights of the Aurora Borealis eluded me but not for lack of paying attention. For years – at least 15 or 20 – I have used Spaceweather.com to follow what’s going on out past this large sphere on which we live.

In the middle of last week, I became aware of a giant sunspot which erupted in several consecutive explosions, hurling CME’s directly at earth. It was, it turned out, the moment I had waited years to occur.

A little before 10 p.m. on May 10th, I checked the Spaceweather.com site and the reports had already begun claiming that people in Florida(!) were seeing the auroras. Even though I had to be up at 5:30 the next morning this was, I was certain, that ‘once in a lifetime’ event.

I am fortunate to live an hour-plus north of the Seattle Metro area and there are dark places not far from my home. I knew where I would go and the hubby and I drove the half mile to the top of Eaglemont Drive in search of the perfect viewing spot.

When we arrived, there was no one else about so we parked next to the golf course driving range and I got out of the car. At first it seemed as if nothing was happening.

Contrary to popular belief, it does NOT rain on the westside of the Cascade mountains every day. May 10th, it turned out, was clear, sunny, and nearly 80 degrees. A truly perfect day in my opinion.

Even the author appears as an apparition with the Auroras erupting behind her.

By ten, of course, the sun had been set for an hour and twenty minutes, so it was dark. Even so, as I looked up I noticed what appeared to be wispy clouds streaking the sky in ribbons from the northeast to the southeast. Since it had been a cloudless day, I wondered, ‘could those clouds be be the solar stream?’

As we looked toward the northeast the sky at the tree line seemed to brighten a bit. My heart quickened. No longer in doubt, I was – finally – seeing the aurora borealis.

It was 10:07 p.m. when I turned on the video on my phone and it captured an almost ghost like apparition of the solar stream as it bounced and danced. At that point the plasma was only gray. A couple minutes later I videoed again and faint pinks and greens now appeared.

Others, having the same idea as me, had started to arrive. Some cars drove past and then, not seeing anything spectacular, would turn and leave. Most parked down by the currently closed clubhouse (as the golf course is up for sale) and we could hear people talking. Around 10:35 another couple pulled up and parked close by and we shared what we knew with them.

The wife said that someone told her to take photos in night mode and that the extra exposure time would bring out the colors. So I did.

If there had been any question before, the photo I got at 10:39 dispelled all doubt that we were witnessing the northern lights.

At 10:45 there was a change in the intensity. As I looked directly overhead there now appeared to be a ‘cross’ in the sky and it was faintly pink, even to the naked eye. The wispy streaks expanded and filled the sky from the middle of the ‘cross’ and then from the eastern horizon to the west and the north to the south.

https://youtube.com/shorts/K-0cowAqjTA?feature=share

All the streams seemed to be converging into that one spot, forming a dome over where we stood. Then, at 10:53 pm, the sky overhead exploded into red and green with bright white sheets of light cascading down on all sides. Every inch of sky was bathed in the glow.

It was impossible to capture all of it on video – nor did I want to. Up until that moment I understood the science… but to experience it as a living human being is quite different. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes and I raised my arms towards the heavens and at what looked like an angel whose head was red and green and whose arms and body were draped with great white, shimmering wings, cast down to embrace me, its whole being surrounding me.

I stood there, enraptured, until the lights began to fade, forever changed by the experience, certain that the science behind the Aurora Borealis will never be able to adequately describe being immersed in it. And if I never see them again, I think that’s okay as I will forever hold the memory of the night I was touched by an angel.

At the height of the geomagnetic storm 10:53 p.m. on Friday, May 10, 2024

www.spaceweather.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2024_solar_storms

A second video link from that night:

https://youtube.com/shorts/WrVwrAhu87E?si=wGjv3vopFdzaFnqH

Easter Confusion

Apr16

One never quite remembers year to year when it will be

April 16, 2024

Back on April 16, 2019, I posted an article about Easter which, that year, was on April 21st.

I’ve decided – even though Easter was sixteen days ago – to repost the article since I think people sometimes forget how convoluted a formula it takes to figure it out each year and what they can look forward to next year.

Traditional Easter egg dyeing event with my kids which, based on this 1999 photo, would have likely been on April 3rd since Easter was on April 4th that year.

When I was a child and began to understand the concept of time and dates, I was fascinated with how this one holiday could be on a different day – heck, month even – from year to year.

And so I learned that you could figure out the date of Easter with the following:

“The first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox.”

Even this requires that one knows what a vernal and an equinox might be. 

Vernal is a fancy word for things related to ‘spring’ and an ‘equinox,’ according to Dictionary.com, is “the time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth’s equator, making night and day of approximately equal length all over the earth and occurring about March 21 (vernal equinox, or spring equinox ) and September 22 (autumnal equinox ).”

While all of this is, in today’s world, is seemingly straight forward, for Christians throughout the world – and as early as 325 AD with the first council of Nicea – the date on which Easter is celebrated has been disputed.

According to the Infallible Wikipedia:

“Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts which do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars which follow only the cycle of the sun; rather, its date is offset from the date of Passover and is therefore calculated based on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the council. No details for the computation were specified; these were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and generated a number of controversies. It has come to be the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March, but calculations vary.”

The full moon of March 2020 was on the 8th which meant that Easter was on the Sunday after the April full moon, on the 12th. The moonrise that day was spectacular even with using a phone to take this photo.

One might think that setting out a fairly straight forward calculation would end the debate but, over the centuries, it’s become more confusing.

Things really went sideways when, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decreed that the Julian calendar was way off and introduced his own calendar. The Gregorian calendar is the one we still use today. I wrote about it here: https://barbaradevore.com/2022/10/11/october-1582/

So what does that have to do with Easter and how to calculate the date? There are people in the world who still – over 400 years later – like the Julian calendar and use it to determine the date on which Easter is celebrated.

There’s also the whole question of the equinox. Back in the fourth century there was no modern science used to calculate the exact moment of the equinox. Instead it was determined based on the above mentioned lunisolar calendar. Which is a fancy way of saying that the people who use such calendars needed a way to adjust the dates based on what was happening around them. Think of it as the spring equinox begins 14 days AFTER the new moon or, approximately, with the full moon of the season.

According to religious rules about Easter, then, the holiday is not truly based on it being on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox. No, the calculation is based on it occurring on the first Sunday following the full moon AFTER March 21.

In 2019, Easter fell on April 21. But should it have? The full moon and the vernal equinox both occurred on March 20 – a mere 3 hours and 45 minutes apart – with the equinox crossing the finish line first at 2:58 pm (PDT).  The moon was full at 6:43 p.m. So by scientific calculation, Easter SHOULD have happened on March 24.

Instead, the rule – for those who follow the Gregorian calendar – is to think of March 21 as the hard and fast equinox which places Easter on this coming Sunday. In the Infallible Wikipedia article, there’s an interesting table which shows the calculated dates of Easter for each competing calendar.

Note that in 2019, there is a column for Astronomical Easter giving that year three different dates from which to choose. The chart is also incorrect as we know the scientific full moon occurred on March 20 and not the 21.

And for the record? The most common date for Easter to occur since the inception of the Gregorian calendar through the year 3000 is April 16. You will be happy to note that in four years April 16th is, once again, the date of Easter on both the Gregorian and Julian calendars.

One of these days I’m certain the whole controversy will be settled. In 1997 a movement was afoot to make a change. Also from the Infallible Wikipedia:

My son, age 1 1/2 at a Timberline neighborhood community Easter egg hunt in 1991. Like this year Easter was on March 31 which explains why everyone is dressed in coats and sweaters for the mid-March hunt.

“At a summit in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997, the World Council of Churches (WCC) proposed a reform in the calculation of Easter which would have replaced the present divergent practices of calculating Easter with modern scientific knowledge taking into account actual astronomical instances of the spring equinox and full moon based on the meridian of Jerusalem, while also following the Council of Nicea position of Easter being on the Sunday following the full moon. The recommended World Council of Churches changes would have sidestepped the calendar issues and eliminated the difference in date between the Eastern and Western churches. The reform was proposed for implementation starting in 2001, but it was not ultimately adopted by any member body.”

And so it goes. All I know is that hunting for Easter Eggs is usually much more pleasant the third weekend of April than it is in late March. But what’s stopping us from boiling a pot of eggs, coloring them, and then hiding them among the grass on our likely too long lawns? Nothing. Think of it as second Easter for when the weather is, we hope, nicer.

The links!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter

https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/easter/easter_text2b.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Apr9

A Visual Feast each April

April 9, 2024

A Tuesday Newsday Classic Updated

This annual event has come to define Mount Vernon and the surrounding area. Begun in April 1984, the Skagit Valley Tulip festival cemented Mount Vernon and the surrounding area’s identity as the tulip capital of the nation.

Schedule of Events from the 1984 Tulip Festival. Photo taken with permission by the author

The first tulip bulbs were brought to the Skagit Valley from Holland in 1906 by Mary Brown Stewart. Soon she had a mail-order bulb business, selling them to garden clubs in New England.  Her son, Sam, joined the operation 20 years later which coincided with a ban by the Federal government on bulbs imported from Holland.

This event triggered many of the bulb growers to send family members to the United States to establish farms. Through trial, error, and success, the bulb growers discovered that the Skagit Valley was a prime bulb growing region, eclipsing Bellingham and Lynden, Washington, where colder winters were not ideal for the plants.

In the late 1940’s, the embargo was lifted and, once again, the Skagit Valley bulb growers were impacted. Many of the smaller farmers were forced out of business with consumers ability to import bulbs from Europe once again.

Relative late comers William and Helen Roozen, Dutch immigrants, purchased the Washington Bulb Company in 1955.

The Infallible Wikipedia gives a short summation:

Photo taken by the author on her first visit to the tulip fields, April 13, 1998

“In 1946, William Roozen arrived to the United States, leaving behind a successful bulb-growing business spanning six generations in Holland. After working on several different farms, Roozen started his own in Skagit County in 1950, and in 1955 purchased the Washington Bulb Company, making him the leader among the four flower-growing families in the area, and the Washington Bulb Company the leading grower of tulip, daffodil, and iris bulbs in North America. The farm operates a public display garden and gift shop called Roozengaarde, which, alongside the DeGoede family’s Tulip Town, is a major attraction during the Tulip Festival.

Local tulip growers showcased their bulbs through display gardens for decades prior to the formation of an official festival. The Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce established the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival as a 3-day event in 1984 to add festivities during the bloom month. The event has since grown to a month-long event and coincides with street fairs, art shows and sporting events.”

Celebrating its 40th year in 2024, the Tulip Festival has become one of the most popular events in the state. Weekends in April produce Mount Vernon traffic jams which rival a bad morning commute in Seattle. The festival organizers estimate that nearly a million people will trek to see the tulips during April. A look at their website, tulipfestival.org, provides a list of hundreds of events throughout Skagit County, helpful ‘bloom’ maps, and lists of where to eat and stay.

In 2019,the Hubby and I visited the tulip festival offices as I was researching for this article, first published in 2019. We were amazed by the steady stream of people coming in to obtain information. One of the volunteers – a friend we know through a different organization –said there are times when the crowds spill out on the sidewalk.

Having only moved to Mount Vernon one year earlier, we purchased three prints of Tulip Festival posters and then headed out on what has become one of the things the Hubby and I ‘do’ together which is drive around the valley.

The three Tulip Festival posters which we purchased in 2019, had framed ,and now hang on our favorite artworks wall. Our way to honor our new home in Mount Vernon.

It was, as we had experienced several times since moving to the area, another magical day. We found a flock of well over a thousand snow geese (they will be gone by mid-May) in a field on Fir Island and were treated to an aerial display which took my breath away. From there we drove up a hill to the west of the flower fields and could see the ribbons of red, yellow, purple, and white cut across the expansive landscape.

We visited a daffodil field which, two weeks earlier, had been a cheery harbinger of spring but the once vibrant blooms were mostly faded. From there we ventured to ground zero, noting that although there were crowds, they were not yet of the epic proportion expected the next two weekends. The red and yellow tulips were approaching full bloom but the purple, white, pink, and variegated ones were still a week or two away.

April 13, 1998 with my kids, then ages 8 and 5. Along with my friend, Kelly, we drove up from Sammamish on the Monday of spring break. The wind cut through us that day!

We vowed that, for 2020, we would go visit Roozengaarde or the other large player, Tulip Town. When Covid hit, that shut down our plans. Perhaps one of these years we will be ‘tourists’ for a day and visit one or both. But for the most part we just enjoy driving around and seeing how the fields change each year. But not on a weekend. We’re not THAT crazy.

For those who want to come see the tulip fields in bloom, visit the official tulip festival website:

https://tulipfestival.org

For more information on Washington Bulb company and the Roozen family:

https://www.tulips.com

A Seattle Times article:

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/events/skagit-valley-tulip-festival-is-starting-to-show-its-flower-power

And the Infallible Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skagit_Valley_Tulip_Festival

Daffodil Days
The Skagit Valley’s ‘other’ flower…

David Gates & Bread

Oct3

‘The Guitar Man’

October 3, 2023

About six weeks ago I decided I needed to write about this musical group which, in the early 1970’s, was easily one of my top 3 favorites. They first caught my attention with their number one hit, “Make It With You,” in the summer of 1970 and it was one of the first albums I ever purchased. The group: Bread.

Either the first or second album I ever bought… Bread’s ‘Baby I’m A Want You.’ I wore it out.

It was on October 1, 1971, when they released what was to become their second biggest hit “Baby, I’m a Want You.” It would reach number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Bread was the creation of David Gates, Jimmy Griffin, and Robb Royer who met in the music scene of Los Angeles in the late 1960’s. The Infallible Wikipedia does, of course, have something to say about the group got its name. As Gates explained in an interview:

“A bread truck came along right at the time we were trying to think of a name. We had been saying, ‘How about bush, telephone pole? Ah, bread truck, bread.’ It began with a B, like the Beatles and the Bee Gees. Bread also had a kind of universal appeal. It could be taken a number of ways. Of course, for the entire first year people called us the Breads.”

“Make it With You” catapulted Bread to the top of the Billboard charts on August 22, 1970. Also from the Infallible Wikipedia:

“For their next single, Bread released a re-recorded version of ‘It Don’t Matter To Me’, a Gates song from their first album. This single was a hit as well, reaching No. 10. Bread began touring and recording their third album, titled Manna (March 1971), which peaked at #21 and included ‘Let Your Love Go’ (which preceded the album’s release and made No. 28) and the Top 5 hit single, ‘If’. As with the first album, songwriting credits were split evenly between Gates and Griffin-Royer.

Royer, after conflicts with other members of the band, left the group in the summer of 1971 after three albums, although he would continue to write with Griffin. (snip)

In January 1972 Bread released Baby I’m-a Want You, their most successful album, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. The title song was established as a hit in late 1971 before the album was released, also hitting No. 3. Follow-up singles ‘Everything I Own’ and ‘Diary’ also went Top 20.

The next album, Guitar Man, was released ten months later and went to No. 18. The album produced three Top 20 singles, ‘The Guitar Man’ (#11), ‘Sweet Surrender’ (#15), and ‘Aubrey’ (#15), with the first two going to No. 1 on Billboard’s adult contemporary chart.”

Bread is best known for David Gate’s rich vocals singing heartfelt ballads, appealing to the 12 to 17 year old female Baby Boomers of the day; their songs perfect for slow dances at Homecoming and Tolo dances.

A couple of diary entries from 1971 and 1972 confirm the impact this group’s music had on me. On December 31, 1971 I wrote: “This is a list of songs I like…” and I go on to list six songs. ‘Baby I’m a Want You’ made the cut. In my 1972 diary I specifically note the handful of songs I liked best at the end of each month. The two most consistent groups on that list were The Carpenters and Bread.

In June 1973 the group disbanded.

New songs and groups stepped into the void and I didn’t really think about Bread very much. At least until I started researching for this article. Research often leads me down rabbit holes and such was the case with this article. The article about the group soon lead to articles about the group members and I found myself enthralled with learning about the individual who I think was most responsible for Bread’s success: David Gates. I loved his voice the first time I heard it and marveled at his song writing. After the breakup of Bread, Gates went on to have a successful solo career but eventually retired. Unlike so many successful musical artists, Gates remained married to his wife, Rita Jo, who he married in 1959, and together they raised four children.

And then he and Rita moved to the state of Washington and the community of… checks article… Mount Vernon!

What? One of my musical favorites lives less than six miles from me? Now, of course, I find myself scanning the more ‘mature’ gentlemen I see out shopping. Could one of them be David Gates? The Guitar Man?

A half an hour of David Gates talking with fans from Mount Vernon, Washington

Back in 2016 a fan in town organized an event with Gates and his wife. Oh how I wish I had known about that. Even though I didn’t yet live in Mount Vernon, I would have driven there to attend!

Although I still love all their music, It’s ‘The Guitar Man’ which best encapsulates David Gates and Bread for this teenager in 1972. Some of the lyrics:

Yesterday, after I finished writing this article I headed into the dentist’s office to have a crown placed. I had just sat down in the waiting room when I heard it. Soft music coming over the speakers. A moment later I burst out laughing. David Gates singing “The Goodbye Girl” was the selection.

After my appointment I shared the serendipity of hearing “The Goodbye Girl” with Sheryl (she runs the office!) and and then told her about today’s Blog topic. She had two immediate reactions. Her first was to exclaim how much she, too, had loved David Gates and Bread as a teenager and, the second, was complete surprise to learn that Gates is a member of the larger community.

So now there are at least two of us who would love to meet our famous neighbor and hear what he has to say.

Once a fan girl, always a fan girl!

A few links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_(band)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gates

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Easy_Listening_number_ones_of_1971

Puma Concolor

Feb28

King of the Beasts in North America

February 28, 2023

Cougar photo from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife webpage. Photo by Rich Beausoleil

The species Puma concolor, also known as a Cougar, is a large cat found in both North and South America. It is believed that the species came across the Bering land bridge between 8 and 8.5 million years ago. Over time the animal became prevalent on both continents.

Today, the Cougar is considered extirpated (not present) in the eastern half of the United States due to habitat destruction.

The Infallible Wikipedia shares this about the Cougar:

“Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. It is an adaptable, generalist species, occurring in most American habitat types. This wide range has brought it many common names, including puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther (for the Florida sub-population). It is the second-largest cat in the New World, after the jaguar (Panthera onca). Secretive and largely solitary by nature, the cougar is properly considered both nocturnal and crepuscular, although daytime sightings do occur. Despite its size, the cougar is more closely related to smaller felines, including the domestic cat (Felis catus) than to any species of the subfamily Pantherinae.”

Leaping Cougar… not from near where I live. http://animal-wildlife.blogspot.com/2011/11/cougar.html

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), there are approximately 2000 adult cougars in this state. Their primary prey are deer and elk, but they have been known to consume smaller mammals also. Human attacks are very rare and only two have been recorded in Washington State in the past 100 years.

A truly amazing animal, cougars can jump up to 18 feet and have been seen leaping from the ground up into the tree branches. The male of the species are about 7 feet 10 inches from nose to the tip of the tail and weigh between 117 and 159 pounds. Females are slightly smaller at 6 feet 9 inches and weigh between 75 and 106 pounds.

Now, for anyone from the state of Washington we hear the word ‘Cougar’ all the time. It would be almost impossible to NOT know of the animal. But like many things, it’s really more of a concept rather than a reality.

At least it is until someone’s Ring or trail camera captures a digital image. Which occurred just last week right here in Mount Vernon. With the advent of such electronic imaging capture systems, we can now get a better glimpse into what the world looks like when we are sleeping… or even in broad daylight.

The Mount Vernon cougar caught on a trail cam. February 21, 2023

The hubby shared in our family chat a couple of photos which showed up on a local Facebook group to which he belongs. Alarming photos.

Alarming, that is, as they clearly show a cougar within two miles of our  home. As many of my readers know the hubby and I go Geocaching which often takes us out on trails in the area. When I saw this photo of the cougar the terrain looked just like the terrain of many a local trail.

Cougar images from backyard cam less than 2 miles from our house. February 25, 2023

In reading the WDFW site it does offer some comfort by sharing the following:

“Adult male cougars roam widely, covering a home range of 50 to 150 square miles, depending on the age of the cougar, the time of year, type of terrain, and availability of prey. Adult male cougars’ home ranges will often overlap those of three or four females.”

Well! That is good news. Chances are that we live in this one particular male’s home range and only have to be concerned about him and his harem of three females. Of course I also learned that the male Cougar’s main job is to keep other cougars out of his territory. So he spends most of his time patrolling the borders of his range. When he’s not romancing the ladies that is.

So that means it’s possible that the male depicted was on the southern boundary of his range and that there’s ANOTHER cougar patrolling the northern side of HIS range! Egads! The possible nearby cougar population just doubled.

Now truly, I’m not worried about Cougars from a personal standpoint. I don’t tend to be out tromping around in the woods at night or even during the crepuscular time of day.

(Crepuscular: Zoology. appearing or active in the twilight, as certain bats and insects. And Cougars, apparently)

But it does make me want to get that motion detector camera which the hubby got at Costco well over a year ago up and active. Sounds like a good project for this week so I can know for sure what is lurking outside our backdoor.

As always, the Infallible Wikipedia is a plethora of information to make your mind go numb:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has a very informative and interesting website. Good job WDFW!

https://wdfw.wa.gov/

This video from WDFW on Cougar territoriality was very good:

Hummingbirds!

May19

May 19, 2020

If You Fill It, They Will Come

hummingbird 2011 003

Anna’s Hummingbird is a year round resident of Western Washington. The author took this photo in her backyard in 2011.

As one drives through the suburbs this time of year, it is hard to not notice the red topped and bottomed glass or plastic bottles hanging from eaves and hooks.

With apologies to the movie ‘Field of Dreams,’ those of us who hang these bottles know, “If you fill it, they will come.”

Beginning in the middle of March, one sure sign that spring is here is the arrival of hummingbirds.

These tiny birds – the smallest of any bird species – are born entertainers. When they find a food source they will defend it with vigor, putting on a show of swoops and dives, as they zoom to and from the feeder. If one sits quietly nearby, the birds may hover and look at you, or will be observed pausing mid-air before flying off in a burst of speed.

They are truly amazing creatures. There are 338 known species, the majority of which are found in South America. In fact there are as many as 140 different species which co-exist with each other in the Andes range. It is likely the species originated on that continent and have spread from there to North America.

Calliope-Hummingbird-male-1200x800

Calliope Hummingbird photo from the internet

black chinned hummer

Black Chinned Hummingbird photo from the internet

Only a few hummingbird types are usually found in Washington State: Anna’s, Rufous, Black-Chinned, and Calliope. A couple other species have been spotted, but their visits are considered accidental.

There are a number of things which make the birds unique.  One is the enlarged brain region responsible for vision. From the Infallible Wikipedia:

“The enlargement of this region responsible for visual processing indicates an enhanced ability for perception and processing of fast-moving visual stimuli which hummingbirds encounter during rapid forward flight, insect foraging, competitive interactions, and high-speed courtship.”

Additionally, hummingbirds have developed in such a way that they can adapt – in flight – to environmental factors such as wind. Wikipedia continues:

“While hovering, the visual system of a hummingbird is able to separate apparent motion caused by the movement of the hummingbird itself from motions caused by external sources, such as an approaching predator. In natural settings full of highly complex background motion, hummingbirds are able to precisely hover in place by rapid coordination of vision with body position.”

The article does go way down into the weeds with technical terms and scientific explanation; worth the longer read to learn more about these tiny acrobats. One of the most interesting aspects of hummingbirds, I think, is their ability to slow their metabolism enough to go into a state of hibernation.

“The metabolism of hummingbirds can slow at night or at any time when food is not readily available: the birds enter a hibernatory, deep-sleep state (known as torpor) to prevent energy reserves from falling to a critical level. During nighttime torpor, body temperature falls from 40 to 18 °C, with heart and breathing rates both slowed dramatically (heart rate to roughly 50 to 180 beats per minute from its daytime rate of higher than 1000).

During torpor, to prevent dehydration, the GFR ceases, preserving needed compounds such as glucose, water, and nutrients. Further, body mass declines throughout nocturnal torpor at a rate of 0.04 g per hour, amounting to about 10% of weight loss each night. The circulating hormone, corticosterone, is one signal that arouses a hummingbird from torpor.

Use and duration of torpor vary among hummingbird species and are affected by whether a dominant bird defends territory, with nonterritorial subordinate birds having longer periods of torpor.”

Just outside my window there are at least four or five of my favorite birds providing me with inspiration.  Occasionally one will zip past my open window, a barely recognizable streak. On beyond – in the tree next to our house I watch as they perch at the top of slender branches. The Anna’s hummingbirds are also known for their vocal chirps, some of which sound like the warning beep of a smoke detector whose battery has worn out.

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Anna’s hummingbird at our feeder in winter

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Our cat Purr watching the show from inside the warm house

I first started feeding them in the 1980’s, putting up the feeders in early spring and retiring them in late August. For years I had understood the birds to be seasonal visitors. Then – some ten years ago – I noticed they were still outside my window in the fall. So I kept refilling their food source. And the birds stayed all winter.

In my reading I learned that only the Anna’s variety will remain year round in the mostly temperate climate of Western Washington.

When we moved to Mount Vernon two years ago, of course I put out the feeder in hopes of attracting a few birds. It worked. This year – without the need to be in Yakima half the time – I upped the stakes. For Mother’s Day my son gave me two additional feeders of a design which I had recently purchased and found it encouraged more birds to participate. With three active feeders, I am now cooking nectar about once a day!

I do believe we have three of the four species here: Anna’s, Rufous, and Black-Chinned. It’s possible the other is here also, but further observation is required.

Occasionally I will have a hummingbird hover just outside the window of my second story office. This occurred once last week and its message was clear: our feeder is empty. When I arrived downstairs and checked, the bird was correct. It was time to carry out my part of the bargain… fill it and they will stay.

Update: May 19, 2022 Due to some commitments this year, I opted to not put out my feeders in the winter. Yet, in mid-March the hummers arrived right on schedule and are just as voracious as always, draining a feeder a day. Today is the exception as I’m having to clean and replace nectar in TWO of the feeders!

I shot this video clip last night. Walked out on our front step and this bird flew right at me, intent on warning me off! The video is a little choppy because it was within inches of my face, coming at me with its beak… the sound you hear is it ‘popping’ it’s tail feathers to make that clicking noise. 

A few links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hummingbird_species

https://www.beautyofbirds.com/hummingbirdswashingtonstate.html

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Apr9

A Visual Feast each April

April 9, 2019

This annual event has come to define Mount Vernon and the surrounding area. Begun in April 1984, the Skagit Valley Tulip festival cemented Mount Vernon and the surrounding area’s identity as the tulip capital of the nation.

1984 Tulip Festival poster

The first tulip bulbs were brought to the Skagit Valley from Holland in 1906 by Mary Brown Stewart. Soon she had a mail-order bulb business, selling them to garden clubs in New England.  Her son, Sam, joined the operation 20 years later which coincided with a ban by the Federal government on bulbs imported from Holland.

This event triggered many of the bulb growers to send family members to the United States to establish farms. Through trial, error, and success, the bulb growers discovered that the Skagit Valley was a prime bulb growing region, eclipsing Bellingham and Lynden, Washington, where colder winters were not ideal for the plants.

In the late 1940’s, the embargo was lifted and, once again, the Skagit Valley bulb growers were impacted with many of the smaller farmers forced out of business.

Relative late comers William and Helen Roozen, Dutch immigrants, purchased the Washington Bulb Company in 1955.

The Infallible Wikipedia gives a short summation:

“In 1946, William Roozen arrived to the United States, leaving behind a successful bulb-growing business spanning six generations in Holland. After working on several different farms, Roozen started his own in Skagit County in 1950, and in 1955 purchased the Washington Bulb Company, making him the leader among the four flower-growing families in the area, and the Washington Bulb Company the leading grower of tulip, daffodil, and iris bulbs in North America. The farm operates a public display garden and gift shop called Roozengaarde, which, alongside the DeGoede family’s Tulip Town, is a major attraction during the Tulip Festival.

Local tulip growers showcased their bulbs through display gardens for decades prior to the formation of an official festival. The Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce established the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival as a 3-day event in 1984 to add festivities during the bloom month. The event has since grown to a month-long event and coincides with street fairs, art shows and sporting events.”

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Now in its 36th year, the Tulip Festival, has become one of the most popular events in the state. Weekends in April produce traffic jams in Mount Vernon which rival a bad morning commute in Seattle. The festival organizers estimate that nearly a million people will trek to see the tulips during April. A look at their website, tulipfestival.org, provides a list of hundreds of events throughout Skagit County, helpful ‘bloom’ maps, and lists of where to eat and stay.

The Hubby and I visited the tulip festival offices a couple days ago (I was researching for this article) and the steady stream of people coming in to obtain information was amazing. We were talking with one of the volunteers – a friend we know through a different organization – and he said that there are times when the crowds spill out on the sidewalk.

We left after purchasing three prints of previous years Tulip Festival posters and then headed out on what has become one of the things the Hubby and I ‘do’ together which is drive around the valley.

It was, once again, another magical day. We found a flock of well over a thousand snow geese (they will be gone by mid-May) in a field on Fir Island and were treated to an aerial display which took my breath away. From there we drove up a hill to the west of the flower fields and could see the ribbons of red, yellow, purple, and white cut across the expansive landscape.

We visited a daffodil field which, two weeks ago, had been a cheery harbinger of spring but now the flowers were mostly faded. From there we ventured to ground zero, noting that although there were crowds, they were not yet of the epic proportion expected the next two weekends. The red and yellow tulips were approaching full bloom but the purple, white, pink, and variegated ones were still a week or two away.

Selfie in tulips 2018

The author with tulips in 2018

Daffodil Barb 2019

The author, at the same field, but now daffodils, 2019

Last year we, having just moved in, didn’t visit Roozengaarde or the other large player, Tulip Town. But this year we plan to be ‘tourists’ for a day and visit one or both to get the entire Skagit experience. But not on a weekend. We’re not THAT crazy.

For those who want to come see the tulip fields in bloom, visit the official tulip festival website:

https://tulipfestival.org/

For more information on Washington Bulb company and the Roozen family:

https://www.tulips.com/

A Seattle Times article:

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/events/skagit-valley-tulip-festival-is-starting-to-show-its-flower-power/

And the Infallible Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skagit_Valley_Tulip_Festival

Mass Ascension…

Jan15

… Mount Vernon Style

January 15, 2019

Although this particular population group is less than one percent of the species, the spectacle they create each winter in the Skagit Valley is breathtaking.

snow geese mass ascension

The geese depart in mass ascension, wings flapping and outstretched.

The Snow Goose, scientific name Anser caerulescens, is a bird which breeds in the Arctic during summer but migrates south each winter. In the state of Washington flocks of the birds can be found in Snohomish, Island, Skagit, and Whatcom counties as well as on the Oregon border in Clark County.

I went scrambling to find out more information about the Snow Goose after witnessing them last week near Mount Vernon. First the facts about the birds from the Infallible Wikipedia:

“The snow goose has two color plumage morphs, white (snow) or gray/blue (blue), thus the common description as ‘snows’ and ‘blues’. White-morph birds are white except for black wing tips, but blue-morph geese have bluish-grey plumage replacing the white except on the head, neck and tail tip. The immature blue phase is drab or slate-gray with little to no white on the head, neck, or belly. Both snow and blue phases have rose-red feet and legs, and pink bills with black tomia (‘cutting edges’), giving them a black ‘grin patch’. The colors are not as bright on the feet, legs, and bill of immature birds. The head can be stained rusty-brown from minerals in the soil where they feed. They are very vocal and can often be heard from more than a mile away.”

The Infallible Wikipedia also informed me that there are approximately 5 MILLION birds of breeding age which migrate from the Arctic to some 15 distinct areas of the United States each winter.

In the Skagit Valley, according to the Audubon Society, there are upwards of 55,000 snow geese which spend the winter feeding on the decaying plants and roots left in the fertile fields. Additionally, approximately 8,000 Trumpeter and 2,000 Tundra Swans are also found near Mount Vernon.

The hubby and I ventured out last Thursday to see if we could find one of the flocks of the snow geese. In less than 10 miles from our home, we encountered a large group gathered just west of I-5 near Conway. First, a word of caution, DO NOT under any circumstance stop along the Interstate to view the birds, as tempting as it may be. We were along a secondary road but saw a Washington State Patrolman stop to give a freeway bird gawker a bit of friendly advice.

We parked our car but even before we opened one of the doors we heard them: squawking and honking in their unique language. The noise overwhelms and defines the experience.  I had no idea how mesmerizing it would be to watch the birds. From a distance, the geese seemed stationary. As we observed from up close, however, the flock seemed to be marching north, as they pecked at bits of leftover plant materials in the fallow ground. Then, as if by command, they turned and marched south, the strong wind ruffling their feathers and making it difficult to walk.

When, a short distance to the west, a train rumbled by and it’s loud horn sounded, the collective was disturbed and suddenly hundreds of birds fluttered into the air, ascending in a group and spiraling up and off to the west. It was, my hubby claimed as he compared it to the famous Albuquerque Balloon Festival, “Mass Ascension, Mount Vernon style.” The first group was followed by another which was followed by third and yet a fourth after that. Soon, only a small portion of the birds remained. And still we watched.

“Look, over there,” my hubby said some ten minutes later and pointed to the southwest.

Sure enough a dark blotch in the sky grew bigger and then we could make out hundreds of individuals all headed our way. Their arrival was quieter than their departure. Each bird, as it landed among the others, seemed like a graceful ballerina, wings spread to form an umbrella on either side, feet and legs outstretched, as each animal floated to earth.

return of the geese

Like airborne ballerinas they stretch their wings wide to land.

The geese descended in flocks numbering in the hundreds. Wave after wave of the snow geese landed among the group already on the ground with each bird somehow finding a bare plot which they could occupy only to resume their marching up and down the fields.

It was with great reluctance that we departed that afternoon. But the experience only whetted my appetite for more. I have my sights set on next visiting the main area where the Tundra and Trumpeter swans gather at a spot called DeBay Slough just to the northeast of Mount Vernon. After that it may be in search of Eagles whose presence is felt among the geese as the former cull the flocks of the sick and weak. Up the North Cascades Highway (SR 20) at Rockport is the Bald Eagle Interpretive Center, open on weekends for people to learn and to view.

After the Snow Goose encounter I came away with one very clear thought. I now live in a magical place. From the tulip fields in the spring, to the ever changing and interesting Skagit River, to the thousands of birds in the winter, there is no shortage of things to see and do here in Mount Vernon.

I was unable to get my own video’s uploaded but found this one on the internet and, as far as I can tell, this is the same spot where we watched the birds last Thursday.

A bunch of links for those who want to visit and see the birds:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_goose

http://www.mountvernonchamber.com/visitor-news/bird-watchers-paradise-peak-season-right-now-for-eagles-snow-geese-swans-in-mount-vernon/

https://wdfw.wa.gov/lands/wildlife_areas/skagit/

http://www.seattleaudubon.org/Birdweb/bird/tundra_swan?tab=3

Viewing Sites

Update January 17, 2023 – The snow geese continue to capture my imagination. Shortly after they started arriving this past November myself, along with a couple of friends, ventured out past Conway on Maupin Road and came across a huge flock. The best part was that they were so close that you felt as if you could touch them. At one point, however, we experienced the ‘down’ side of geese watching… when a huge flying formation approached from the north and flew south over the top of the car. The next thing we knew we were under attack as they strafed my car with their bombs! It took some dedication later to clean off the residue of their bombs.