Latest / Street Smart Naturalist / Top Wild Sights of Seattle

Transcript

Top Wild Sights of Seattle · Street Smart Naturalist

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Greetings,
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Williams and the podcast of my newsletter,
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind.
• 0:09
  Every week I share my observations and adventures with the
• 0:11
  human and natural world
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: around Seattle,
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Puget Sound,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: and the Pacific Northwest.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode celebrates some of my favorite wild things in Seattle.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about my work, please go to my website, geologywriter.com.
• 0:25
  You'll also find a link to my Substack newsletter and my
• 0:28
  previous four years of newsletters,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: as well as images tied to this week's episode.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining me on this adventure,
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: and welcome to Podcast 23 of the Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Top Wild Sites in Seattle,
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: May 8,
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: 2025.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: The other day,
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: at one of my talks for my new book,
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Wild in Seattle,
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: someone asked me,
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: what was the wildest thing I had seen in the city?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was a great question,
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: and prompted by my big brother,
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I decided to come up with some of my favorite wild sightings in Seattle.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Flying fish.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: At Alki Point,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: with a pal,
• 1:03
  we saw an adult herring passing over us in the talons of an
• 1:06
  osprey who disappeared
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: to the north.
• 1:08
  Then the osprey and herring returned back over the water,
• 1:11
  followed by a bald eagle.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: The osprey juked right before dropping the fish in the water.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Abandoning his pursuit,
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: the eagle seemed ready to dive into the water after the herring,
• 1:23
  but apparently decided at the last minute that the fish wasn't
• 1:26
  worth the effort.
• 1:27
  Another time I watched an eagle bring a fish back to her nest
• 1:30
  near Green Lake and
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: land with the meal,
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: only to have the fish flop out of the nest and fly,
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: technically drop,
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: to the ground below.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: The eagles sure looked grumpy about the lost calories,
• 1:42
  but several nearby crows rejoiced and within seconds had landed
• 1:45
  on their long yap.
• 1:47
  Spirit Whale Many years ago at a friend's mother's memorial
• 1:51
  service near Shilshul Marina,
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: a gray whale rose out of the water adjacent to us.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: My friend later told me, quote,
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: This was exactly the time when we were moving up there from Seattle.
• 2:07
  So we sort of metaphorically imagine that my mom as a whale
• 2:10
  came to her own
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: memorial and then followed us to Canada,
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: unquote.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly sounds good to me.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: The coyote clan living it up.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Walking to the light rail station at Northgate,
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I heard the wonderful sound of a coyote calling about 50 feet away.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I knew they lived on the campus,
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: but had yet to hear one,
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: so I was rather pleased with the howls.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: God's dogs, as they are known by some.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: are widespread across the city.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen them under I-5 on Ravenna,
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: trotting by our house,
• 2:39
  and once I encountered three of them sitting in the middle of
• 2:43
  an intersection on a
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: quiet road.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't seem to care that I was running by them.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I wondered if they would have moved when a car arrived.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: They certainly seemed to own the road.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: I have no problem with that.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thrilling to thrushes.
• 2:56
  Over the past few springs,
• 2:58
  I've savored hearing the trills of varied thrushes.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: These orange-necked,
• 3:02
  black-bibbed cousins of robins typically start calling at dawn
• 3:06
  in a haunting,
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: monotone whistle suffused with the mysteries of a mountain forest.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Summer residents at higher elevations,
• 3:15
  they migrate down to hang out with we lowland dwellers from
• 3:18
  late fall to spring.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: The trilling notes feel not only like a rejoicing of spring,
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: but also a call to turn one's thoughts to the mountains.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Dinner in the park.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Walking down the main trail at dusk one summer day in Ravenna Park,
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: we heard a buzzy sort of raspy hiss ahead of us.
• 3:37
  The sound came from a juvenile ballard owl,
• 3:41
  one of four flying from tree to tree.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: The highlight was when mom,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: or at least an adult caught a rat,
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: flew up to the perch,
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: began sectioning the meal,
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: and served chunks to one youngster.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Soon a second kid arrived and muscled his or her sibling out of the way,
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: which prompted mom to abandon the rat to her children.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: She then flew straight toward me,
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: landed a social distance away,
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: and nabbed a worm,
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: which she ate,
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: and then she did it again,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: landing about 38 feet away.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: erupting volcanoes.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: In 1975, I watched steam erupt from Mount Baker.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then it shut down.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still disappointed that nothing further happened than a few puffs.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily, in 1980, Mount St.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Helens burst to life with an epic eruption.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: We couldn't see the big blast of May 18th,
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: but I remember watching it on our black and white television.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Annoyingly,
• 4:33
  none of the ash that eventually circled the globe from that
• 4:35
  eruption made it our way.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Fortunately,
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: though,
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: the wind blew north in a subsequent eruption,
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: and a totally cool,
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: thin layer of ash painted our deck in gritty gray.
• 4:46
  dead salmon at car keek life comes in many forms even death
• 4:52
  last spring i witnessed
• 4:53
  the return of salmon to piper's creek in north seattle the fish
• 4:57
  had come to spawn
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: and die which they did by the hundreds in doing so they were continuing a
• 5:02
  multi-generational multi-millennial way of life that helped
• 5:05
  perpetuate salmon as
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: well as the plants and animals that benefit by the death of the fish
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: As I wrote about them in a previous newsletter,
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: the salmon were illustrating the power of place,
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: of how the DNA of a landscape can embed itself in each of us,
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: animal,
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: plant,
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: human,
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: and provide a tenacity and resilience to the challenges that we all face.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Deep time.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: One of the many fine scientific ideas that geology has gifted the world.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorites is deep time of our past.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Stretching back 4.54 billion years,
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: that great abyss of planetary eons is why the world looks as it does.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Fortunately,
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: I and you,
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: if you so desire,
• 5:47
  have an easy opportunity in downtown Seattle to encounter one
• 5:50
  of the oldest
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: exemplars of Earth's deep time.
• 5:54
  Minnesota's Morton Ice is 3.5 billion years old and was long
• 5:58
  used as a building stone.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: It appears in the Exchange Building at 2nd and Marion,
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: the Westlake Light Rail Station,
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: and the 1809th Building.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like a profound experience,
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to go find this lovely rock,
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: to touch it,
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: and to reach back,
• 6:15
  back,
• 6:16
  back to the early days of Earth and to bond with the deep time
• 6:19
  that binds all of us together.
• 6:22
  These are just a few of the uncountable number of interactions
• 6:25
  I've had with the
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: wild in Seattle.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to hear about yours.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Please share them in the comments section.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Once again,
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Williams,
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: author and voice of The Street Smart Naturalist,
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind,
• 6:40
  a weekly newsletter and podcast focusing on the human and
• 6:42
  natural world around Seattle,
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Puget Sound,
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: and the Pacific Northwest.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more details about my books,
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: walks,
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: and talks,
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: and a link to sign up for my newsletter and podcast,
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: check out my website,
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: geologywriter.com.
• 6:55
  And don't forget to slow down,
• 6:57
  pay attention,
• 6:58
  and enjoy the world around you.