[Get Out and Go]

One of the teachers in Cashmere passed me the photo of what she woke up to in her hillside yard yesterday.

[Navy salad]

This is a really fuzzy shot. These 2 bears came wandering through our backyard as my wife and I frantically scrambled to find our phones to take a picture. My wife caught this just as they were passing out of sight. One was pretty big (I'd guess 150-200 lbs), the other much smaller.

We live just up from a wetlands area and get lots of pesky bears (as our fallen bird feeders and even a fallen over apple tree will attest). Over the years, we've seen bobcats, coyotes, bears, and way too many deer (from our plants' perspective, which the deer seem to regard as one giant salad bar).

[Mike Collins]

Deer come to my Bellevue backyard everyday but the bear who visited this evening is a rare event. Nothing around to attract the bear like bird seed or suet.

[Ski]

I couldn't figure out what this weird scritchy-scratchy noise was while I was sitting here at the computer. At first I thought maybe some little animal was outside scratching on the wall or something like that.... ... I turned around to get up to get a cup of tea and this little guy was perched on top of my big backpack. No idea how long he’d been in here. Obviously he should have taken a left at Albuquerque.

chickadee dee dee dee 08/08/23

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."

Anne Elk

[Ski]

I was about to yank out this fennel I planted earlier this year when I noticed its flowers were populated with a number of six-legged creatures I do not recognize. Is this black guy one of those "bald face hornets"? He seemed too small. The ones that always nail me up on the Queets are much larger than this guy. The waspy-looking guy is a complete mystery to me, and the little gold-colored guy. Obviously, they're all out there doing the "pollinating" thing, so I'm leaving the fennel plant in place. Anybody recognize these guys?

[Bosterson]

That does look like a bald faced hornet. I believe they're not super large (like other hornets) since technically they're a type of yellowjacket? Not sure what the wasp is - could be a species of mud dauber given its needle waist. Is the "gold colored guy" the honeybee?

[Ski]

the gold-colored one was definitely NOT the standard European Honeybee I used to see so often around here. that one was much smaller. there were others who visited yesterday - mostly on the zinnia farther back, but I didn't have my camera in my pocket. I was just struck by the different species of pollen gatherers I'm seeing - some of which I don't recognize. I had NO idea the fennel would be such an attraction.

[Anne Elk]

This might help, Ski: https://www.insectidentification.org/insects-by-type-and-region.php?thisState=washington&thisType=Bee,%20Ant,%20Wasp%20and%20Similar For sure the preponderance are bald-faced hornets, but that one in the middle row on the left is for sure a honeybee. They can vary (slightly) in size depending on their age.

[Cyclopath]

Neighbor cat brought a rabbit

[Malachai Constant]

Troll born in Izzy And this guy

[Mike Collins]

A doe with her growing fawn showed up today. The doe was alert and saw the dog in our house (we are dog-sitting). It then proceeded to repeatedly stomp its forefeet on the ground. This is done to deposit a scent from interdigital glands onto the ground. Other deer that visit the same locale can then be alerted to the previous presence of danger (i.e.predator), when they put their nose to the ground to smell. This article is about white-tail deer but Columbia black-tail deer exhibit the same behavior. https://www.mossyoak.com/our-obsession/blogs/deer/scent-glands-101-making-sense-of-whitetails-scent-glands

[Logbear]

This is one of our resident coyotes looking for some ripe apples. He's very picky. He prefers the Golden Chehalis because they are soft and easy to eat. The Red Delicious last longer and ripen later in the year, but they are harder with a thick skin.

Those Red Delicious apples came in very useful back in December 2022. December 21st the high temp was 23 deg with a low of 7.9. December 22 the low hit 6.6 at 8:00 AM. and climbed to 22.8 for a high., What I witnessed still amazes me. This Coyote (his name is Darmok), showed up at 10:44 AM. Temp was 18 degrees. It's unusual for Darmok, or any coyote for that matter, to show themselves in broad daylight, but there he was. Darmok sniffed around, stuck his nose in the snow, pulled an apple out of the snow and ran off with it. That was cool enough to see but it got better. Darmok came back a few minutes later and pulled another apple out of the snow, showed his signature "lazy foot", laid the apple gently on top of the snow, and left. Was this a trap? Did Darmok do this so he could catch some critter that goes for the apple? Nope. Darmok left and I didn't see him again that day. First there were some little birds, then a squirrel, then two rabbits. After dark I had 2 raccoons and a possum. They all chewed a little bit of the apple. But there was still a little tiny bit left. The next day the little birds finished it up. I've been asked if Darmok's "lazy foot" is some kind of injury. The answer is no. He has no injury. He uses the "lazy foot" technique to avoid getting tripped by salmon berries, branches, berry vines and what-not. He has shown his lazy foot in lots of my game camera videos. When he walks, both feet do the lazy foot thing. When he stands in front of a camera he lifts his left foot. Darmok's daughter Martha learned about apples at a young age. Here she is at about 5 months old.

Martha is all grown up now and after meeting up with a handsome coyote named Cassidy, she has had 3 litters of pups. They've used the same den for birthing 3 years in a row. The coyotes are safe here and the litter size shows. 2 the first year. Both survived. 2 the second year. One was hit by a car. 3 this year. All fine so far. The pups should disburse, but they like it here. With Darmok and Uhura, (Grandparents), Martha and Cassidy (parents), and six kids, I've got a 10 coyote family living here.

[Logbear]

Coyote size comparison. 2 yr old vs 5 weeks old.

[coldrain108]

Not real wildlife, but first I've seen of these in my backyard. First mow of the year.

[Schroder]

A gray whale in my front yard this morning