On September 17, from 7:45 to 1:15, the Natural History Society will lead a trip to Nodule Point on Marrowstone Island. We will be exploring the geological features of this unique environment. See the newsletter for more information and how to sign up.
Day trips to Hurricane Ridge without a car are now easy and inexpensive. Bus rides from Port Townsend to Port Angeles are free, and the hourly bus ride to Hurricane Ridge costs $2 round trip. ONP admission is collected at the bus. Passengers can pay $15 or show a pass, including the lifetime Senior Pass.
by Wendy Feltham
In summer, the Olympic Peninsula is a colorful wonderland of wildflowers. Pollinators make this happen— insects including bees, butterflies, and flies. We have hundreds of fly species, some pollinating flowers high in the mountains, and others at sea level.
It’s true that some flies harm crops and bite mammals, but many flies are beneficial insects. Insects in the Syrphidae family, called hoverflies or flower flies, don’t bite people. They’re essential pollinators of agricultural crops and native wildflowers, and the larvae of some species eat aphids.
Flower flies are usually small, about a half-inch long. It’s enchanting to watch them hover like miniature helicopters over their target flower before zooming in for nectar and pollen. Some “mimic” stinging wasps and bees. They tend to prefer white and yellow flowers.
Local entomologist Richard Lewis told me, “Flies (Syrphids) are some of the most evolutionarily advanced of all the insects and play several important ecological roles including decomposers, pest control, pollination, and as a food source for other organisms. They reproduce rapidly, have exceptional vision, amazing agility in flight,
and are highly adaptable. These qualities not only make them important in the natural world but also inspire many scientific studies and technological advances.” You can see more at the iNaturalist project, “Flies of the US and Canada:”
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flies-of-the-us-and-canada.
Here are some of the photos submitted by our readers and us, of animals in our backyards.
Top row: Pacific Tree Frog in the garden, and Barred Owl by Darby Smith; Western Tiger Swallowtail by Peggy & Tom Stanlick
Middle row: Raccoon under the bird feeder, and doe and fawns by Ellie Cote
Bottom row: Barred owlets by Oma Landstra; Northern Flicker in snow by Wendy Feltham
By Dave Rugh
From 2014 to 2016, the Land Trust participated in the Fisher Monitoring Program at various sites on the Quimper Peninsula, following protocol established by the National Park Service and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Fishers are in the weasel family, about the size of a domestic cat. They are highly energetic and eat a variety of prey, including rabbits, mountain beavers, and even porcupines; plus, fishers are eaten by other predators, i.e., they are mesopredators.
Although no fishers were photographed here, we did get many other animals attracted to the bait, such as opossums (146x), black bears (25x), coyotes (12x), dogs (9x), a raccoon (1x), Steller’s Jays (7x), Vultures (2x), and Ravens (2x). A cougar, squirrels, and deer plus various birds were also photographed, but they were incidental to the baited tree. At each site, there was a motion-sensing camera placed 9-18ft from a tree with chicken bait plus lure and a triangular tunnel (called a cubby) that had brushes which could gather hair, allowing for individual identification of each animal via DNA.
This year on July 1, the Land Trust began the project again with two cameras each in the Snow Creek Forest, the Duckabush Riparian Forest, Valley View Forest, and one each in the Quimper Wildlife Corridor and at Chai-yahk-wh. At approximately 3-week intervals, the cameras will be checked until early September.
