This post continues with a little help from some friends (students). For this week's animal they chose to investigate deer. It was a close race between deer, bobcats, and raccoons. This is the only place where the deer would win! We learned that mule deer are found in our part of Washington, between the Olympic Mtn and the Cascade Mtn ranges. One of the teachers at our school talked to us about the mule deer. She has seen them and taken pictures of mule deer on her land located about 2 hours northwest of Seattle. It seems that the mule deer likes open areas and is tolerant of people! We learned that the mule deer was given the name "mule" because of its large mule-like ears, and they have a sort of hopping gait where they jump and land on all 4 feet at the same time. They prefer less-mountainous areas and even wander into towns where they munch on yummy ornamental plants.

My students enjoyed hearing about the mule deer and they plan to look for them when they are out hiking and travelling this summer!

This blog is not only for adults, but also for children! This week I had a little help from my Kindergarten students. Washington is known as the Evergreen State and we noticed that we have a lot of evergreens around our playground. We picked the largest tree that was full of pinecones for us to learn more about. We picked up some of the pinecones on the ground after looking at the needles very closely. Back in our classroom we looked in a tree identification book to see if we could find our tree. We discovered our tree and a great picture of its pinecones in the National Audubon Society first field guide: Trees. The tree is a Douglas Fir and with very interesting pinecones it was not difficult for my students to find. We read about the Douglas Fir and discovered that they grow close together as we saw by our playground. Also, it is one of the largest trees on the west coast.

My students really enjoyed being a part of this blog and now they have learned how to find out more about the nature around them!

Well, I started this blog to share with others some of the amazing animals and plants that are here in Washington state. It helps that I take tons of pictures of nature, probably too many, when I am out.The animal this week is the common merganser. This water bird was sitting on the rocks by Lake Washington at Seward Park. I first began liking waterbirds when I met the hooded merganser, related species. This bird had so much personality! And they are diving birds, catching small fish, insects, frogs, etc. Their beaks look so formidable and highly effective. The photo below is of a female common merganser, the male has a black head with a white and black body.



The flower I chose this week is the Pacific Rhododendron. And if you have ever been to the Seattle Arboretum, you have experience the huge variety this flower exhibits. There is a whole area of the walking trails that focuses on rhododendrum. It is a native plant and a perennial, growing during the spring and summer maybe up to 15 feet tall. I really enjoyed the arboretum and hope that you like these pics, too.

Washington state flora and fauna #1: Olympics

The Olympic Marmot! (Marmota olympus) When we decided to move to Washington I bought a field guide so I could learn about plants and animals on the West Coast. Having grown up on the East Coast, I knew that this was a brave new world of species. That was when I first learned that marmots could be found here. During our second summer in Washington we traveled from Seattle to the Olympic National Park and visited Hurricane Ridge. It was a short hike from the parking area to the scenic mount. As we made our way up, we discovered that we were surrounded! Marmots everywhere. They were perched on rock, collecting flowers in their mouths, and laying on their bellies on ice sheets. We stopped at the top for a snack and that is when I snapped this photo. This marmot was actually very close, a lot closer than I thought they would ever get. As we snacked, he made himself comfortable on this perch about 50 feet away.


This beautiful white flower with a yellow center is an avalanche lily (Erythronium montanum). It also grows in the sub-alpine and alpine range of the Olympic mountains. I snapped this photo on the way up the path to Hurricane Ridge, but the avalanche lily covered the area. The avalanche lily begins to sprout and grow just after the snow melts and can be seen all along the path during the summer. To see the mountainside covered with avalanche lilies is one of nature's most breathtaking scenes!