Motley Moose – Archive

My favorite picture of a GBH taken in the Padden Creek estuary within a quarter mile of the Heronry. This was taken a few years ago in early spring, about now.

The Great Blue Heron (GBH; Ardea herodias) is found in all parts of North and Central America. Although many areas like to claim them as their own, residents of Puget Sound and the Salish Sea in particular, feel a strong affinity for these statuesque creatures. To most locals, they are right up there with eagles and gulls as being part of our “native” landscape and part of our ecosystem. While not endangered at this time, they are considered a species of interest.  

An overcast October day seemed like a great time to take a hike though Whatcom Falls Park (Bellingham WA) to get some pics of Whatcom Creek and the turning foliage. The city park has been around for over 100 years but some of the infrastructure was built during the depression era (WPA). The creek drains from Lake Whatcom and runs about 3 miles into Bellingham Bay. The drop of about 400 feet from the lake to the bay enables a number of picturesque waterfalls both within and outside of the park itself. At the head is a pond called Derby Pond , specifically designed for youngsters’ fishing in the spring – no adults allowed to fish. The park also houses a fish hatchery with Rainbow Trout as big as small salmon. On the Creek’s course to the bay, it runs through Whatcom Falls Park, an industrial area, then through town, and over a final waterfall into Marine Heritage Park where there is a salmon hatchery. Along the creek are popular and well used walking, running, and biking trails that meander through cedar, fir, vine and big leaf maple trees. All are illustrated below the tangled roots on the trail. Be careful not to trip on them.

Mt. Shuksan in the clouds across Picture Lake

Mt. Skuksan

Last weekend appeared as if it might be last chance I could get up to Mount Shuksan  and Mt. Baker National Forest before the snows set in. So, with grand kids again, I went up to see the Fall colors and what happened to the plants that I saw on my last foray a couple of months ago.

This is largely a photo diary of Alpine scenery in the Mt. Baker National Forest and Wilderness Area.

Spring time is Rhododendron time around the world. These prolific bloomers are native to Asia, North America, Australia, and Europe. They are members of the Genus Rhododendron  and the Family of Ericaceae (Heaths). The name is derived from ancient Greek (rhódon “rose” or “red“) and déndron “tree”). There are some 800 to 1,000 species and 28,000 cultivars listed by the Royal Horticultural Society. Azaleas are a subgenera of Rhododendron.

A Washington State Ferry plying between the San Juan Islands and Anacortes with Mt. Baker in Background

Working boats are those that haul our freight, catch our fish, transport us where bridges don’t go, and rescue us when we are either unlucky or foolhardy at sea. These are hard working craft with hard working captains and crews.

Pleasure boats are often elegant and great for sport. We’ve all seen the graceful sailboats with their colorful billowing spinnakers and sailors’ hair blowing in the breeze. And then there are the really big giant multimillion dollar yachts that for many of us elicit varying parts of envy and repugnance. I believe that far too little attention is paid to the real boating troopers who toil daily in all kinds of tides and weather. In this photo diary I highlight these intrepid mules of the waterways. No fair weather sailors here.  

I live on a bay at the edge of the Salish Sea. We have a wonderful harbor that moors both pleasure craft and working boats, including a sizeable fishing fleet that fishes both locally and in the waters of Alaska.

Most of these photos are taken on or around Bellingham Bay including Squalicum and Fairhaven Harbors. A few photos are from the nearby San Juan Islands and the Northern Puget Sound, all parts of the Salish Sea. Some boats are at dock while others are underway carrying out their various nautical occupations.

                    Upper Falls, Whatcom Creek, Whatcom Falls Park, Bellingham, WA

Whatcom Creek is the third salmon spawning stream that runs through Bellingham. I promised in my last diary that it would be the last. However, I took so many photos and there was too much stuff. So, here I will describe the creek and its history. The next one will focus on both the primeval timelessness of the creek itself and illustrate how its two fish hatcheries are working to keep this marvelous place for future generations.  

                            Squalicum Creek spawning grounds in December

I previously documented Bellingham’€™s creek habitat restoration efforts with the example of Padden Creek which is one of three salmon spawning streams that flow through the city of Bellingham and empty into Bellingham Bay and the Salish Sea. In this diary, I document the ongoing restoration of a second creek.  

                   

                                          Padden Creek at Fairhaven Park

Among the icons associated with the Pacific Northwest are evergreen trees, rain, streams, and salmon. These PNW icons have existed in symbiotic relations with one another for probably millions of years. A change in one can affect the others. But apparently this fact was unknown or at least unappreciated by the early American settlers of this region. They over-logged the trees which allowed the abundant rain to wash mud and whole hillsides into the streams which became uninhabitable for the salmon that had used these streams for eons to maintain their life cycles. They also dammed up spawning rivers to provide electricity to run their sawmills and salmon canneries. The irony is that they destroyed the very things that made them wealthy.  

This is the second of my two-part diary of the fossils from the Chuckanut Formation (C/F), located near Bellingham in Northwestern Washington State. As noted in part 1, (flora), this formation developed during the  Eocene Epoch, some 50 million years ago (ma). This area was a subtropical fluvial plain on to which sediments were deposited and ultimately hardened into sandstone, shale, and siltstone that captured specimens of both flora and fauna of that time. (No new pseudofossils in this part.)

                         Racehorse Creek land slide and fossil beds

I am fascinated by the structures of the earth and how its most beautiful and intriguing features came about, and indeed are still forming. However, as a non-geologist, I am still boggled by the geologic time frame of millions of years. Millions of dollars seem to be tossed around a lot and are of little significance anymore in some circles. But millions of years to a non-geologist remains difficult to conceptualize.

                                          Geologic feature in Chuckanut Bay