the way it is

Some of you may want to hear about the natural world around here at this time of year. If you're not interested, stop now.

There is a single loon hunting just off our beach, three great blue herons and a pair of eagles. Probably a kestrel or two, and at least one osprey, though that hasn't been seen lately. The harbor seals are busy, as are the otters. Plenty of grebes out there, as hobbitt and I discovered on a recent off-shore paddle. Occasional Dall's porpoise. A slew of red-shafted flickers near the copse of trees at the spit, but also up here on the headlands. Skittish bunch.

I don't know what the raccoons are up to, but a majority of the neighborhood is up in arms, after some serious attacks on dogs. I suspect their population will decline in the next months. I hope they move on, but I think some of them will be moved beyond. I couldn't do it, tree-hugging liberal that I am, but, well, it will have to be done. Some of our neighbors are feeding them and the population has exploded. I think those same neighbors need to understand that the killings are because they are luring the adults and sustaining an unnaturally large population. I hope someone has the courage to let them know that. I'll do it if I'm asked.

I thought I would have scared them off with my fiddle practice, but no dice.

The vine maples are showing spectacular color, and the Oregon grape is starting to show off its red. Winter berries are prominent at the beach (rose hips and snowberries) and up here on the bluffs. Alders, which have been dropping leaves since the hardest part of the dry summer, are merely keeping time. The blackberries are loaded and ready to disperse the next generation of invasive vines. Oh, and they're mighty tasty, too.

The big-leaf maples are starting to turn. The sun is quite low. It's about time for the cedars to finally drop their water-stressed brown old scales and green up again. The digger bees are about done. The crew here at Kala Point have closed the dock. Only commercial crabbers and shrimpers have pots out in the bay now, but there are a lot of them.

I'm in flux with our yard. Soon the landscaper will come and move a lot of plants so that the big equipment can get into the back yard. And yet, even in October I am watering the evergreen huckleberry, the sarcococca, the acuba. It's a pain in the neck to be watering now, but there you have it. The rains haven't started. Maybe soon.