Blog
Mystery muse
By Kathryn True This fall as I walked down my street with a visiting nature-loving friend from Seattle, she suddenly asked, “What’s that?” We both stopped, delighted by an unusually loud and spring-like bird song, emanating from the forest across from my driveway on...
BioBlitz 2015: Maury Island Preserve Network
A few days before the BioBlitz I sat on driftwood logs at Maury Island Marine Park beach and took a moment to meditate on the upcoming weekend. This has become a tradition for me before every BioBlitz survey. I'm not sure how it started or exactly why I am compelled...
If Sherlock Holmes Were a Naturalist……
When Phoebe Goit returned home from the 2014 island Bioblitz in July, she found a surprise as she peered at a tiny twig under her microscope. A Kitsap Peninsula resident who has volunteered her lichen expertise at the last two Bioblitzes, Phoebe was stumped by an...
Important coyote follow up
This is a follow up to our previous blog post about coyotes at the Sheep Dog trials. Since last Friday, we have learned more. Because Vashon Nature Center’s focus is to provide information about local wildlife and ecosystems, we would like to share resources on living...
Living with coyotes
There were 6 coyotes spotted at the Sheep Dog trials last weekend. These coyotes preyed on and killed 2 sheep and a lamb that had been released into the meadows for the weekend and two of them were shot when they returned to hunt sheep the next night. In light of...
Christensen Counts!
Bioblitz 2014 July 12-13 Christensen Creek Watershed Even on this small island, each of our Bioblitz events has been unique both in terms of species composition and overall feel. At Neill Point in 2012, everything was new, even rather ordinary things hadn’t been...
Zen and the Art of Tadpole Rescue
I have been engaged in a ritual the last couple of weeks that involves such focus, attention and agility, that the world drops away and I go into a near meditative state. It’s not a wise Eastern tradition, drugs or hypnotherapy, but it is mind-expanding and...
Handbook for Not Owning Land
I step off the gravel road onto a trail hidden by undergrowth. Sword ferns and cedar branches close behind me like a curtain, and my breathing subtly changes. My senses tune to nature’s frequency and I begin to hear them: The high chiming of golden-crowned kinglets;...
Volunteers keep an eye on stream health–Salmon watchers 2013
A version of this article also appeared in the January 1st edition of the Vashon Island Beachcomber as an invited series on citizen science. When John Martinak signed up for the Vashon Nature Center Salmon Watcher Program last fall, he wasn’t convinced he’d actually...
Header Photo: Bianca Perla