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.

By Jackie Canterbury

You are sitting quietly by a forest stream, or in your yard. A brilliant gem darts and hovers and then disappears. The hummingbird, named for the humming sound of its beating wings, brings a sudden glow to your face. John James Audubon described a hummingbird as a “glittering garment of the rainbow.” 

Hummingbirds are found only in North and South America. They are mostly tropical and prefer lush vegetation and high humidity along the equator. The country that supports the largest number of hummingbirds is Ecuador, followed by Colombia.

The Anna’s and Rufous Hummingbirds are found along our Pacific coast. The Anna’s remains here all year. In contrast, the Rufous is a long-distance migrant traveling 4,000 miles from breeding grounds in Southeast Alaska, Washington, and Oregon to wintering areas in Mexico. Their return flight is inland over the Rocky Mountains. For that feat they have evolved into the fastest fliers for their small size at 30mph.

The throat feathers of hummingbirds are called the ‘gorget’. The term comes from days of old when a knight-in-armor wore a metallic collar or gorget to protect the throat. The color we see is due to iridescence and the reflection of light. And, the cool part is that individual female Rufous Hummingbirds, for example, can be identified by the individual color patterns on their throat. Though only males have a gorget, females do have patterns of bright color, as shown in these photographs.

We hope you’re enjoying all the daily transformations.

In this season of beauty and wonder, sometimes we come upon intriguing, even mysterious, natural phenomena. Last week, I (Wendy) was looking under plywood boards as part of the Land Trust’s “Amphibian Project,” and although no amphibians appeared yet this year, several tiny Red Alder cones had rolled under the soggy boards, many covered in minuscule, powder blue cup fungus. What species was this? Why only on these cones? I couldn’t find the answer in my field guide. Then to my surprise, mycologists on iNaturalist quickly identified it as Lachnum virgineum (Stalked Hairy Fairy Cup). One mystery solved.

I asked Dave what mysteries he ponders. He replied, “Wildlife tracks can be clear – as on a sandy beach or in the snow – or just a hint – as on forest litter. It’s often a real challenge to figure out who walked on that trail ahead of you. Taking a course on tracking is an excellent introduction to understanding what’s out there and sorting out marks, scratches, scat, and other wildlife signs.”

The April newsletter tells the story of another mystery, and how it was solved. There’s so much to observe and ponder on the Olympic Peninsula. Please let us know if you want to share any photos of any unsolved mysteries.