Earth Sanctuary: A Nature Reserve, Meditation Parkland and Sculpture Garden

Hooded Merganser and Chicks

On Thursday, July 23, at 8:58am PDT, with an Earth Sanctuary dawn bird chorus in the background, you can hear my BirdNote radio interview on KPLU 88.5 FM.  See www.birdnote.org for more info.

Craig & Joy Johnson monitored a Rufous Hummingbird nest at Earth Sanctuary for 34 days and created a slide show from the building of the nest to eggs to fledged hummingbirds!  Click here to see the slide show.

This slide show takes you through the development of these amazing, tiny birds.  Arleen Stebbins first saw this nest while conducting her Wood Duck survey at Earth Sanctuary.  Many, many birds nest at Earth Sanctuary. 

Photos and slide show by Craig Johnson

Rufous Hummingbird

Above is a female Rufous Humminbird on her nest.  Under her are two hatched chicks.

Two Hummingbird chicks at Earth Sanctuary.

12 days later here are the two chicks!

Here is a web cam of a Black-chinned Hummingbird

Here is a web cam of an Allen’s Hummingbird.

Western Tanager at Earth Sanctuary (Craig Johnson)

Craig and Joy Johnson, Whidbey Island bird experts and authors of Our Puget Sound Birds & Habitat, provided this list of birds they have seen in the past two weeks:

1. Black-throated Gray Warbler
2. Western Tanager
3. Black-headed Grosbeak
4. Yellow Warbler
5. Wilson’s Warbler
6. Pacific Slope Flycatcher
7. Red-breasted Sapsucker
8. Swainson’s Thrush
9. Cinnamon Teal
10. Green-winged Teal
11. Cedar Waxwings
12. Wood Ducks with chicks
13. Hooded Merganser with chicks
14. Rufous Hummingbird
15. Brown Creeper
16. Golden-crowned Kinglet
17. Osprey
18. Tree Swallow
19. Barn Swallow
20. Violet-green Swallow
21. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
22. Northern Flicker
23. Red-winged Blackbird
24. Song Sparrow feeding young
25. American Robin feeding young

Visit their beautiful web site!

Arlene Stebbins discovered a hummingbird nest near the West pond.  Rufus hummingbirds incubate eggs for 15-17 days.  The babies are born naked and they are fed–and grow– for 15-19 days before leaving the nest. 

Arlene Stebbins of Audubon is monitoring duck nesting boxes at Earth Sanctuary weekly.  We have wood ducks and hooded mergansers nesting in the boxes so far.

On the ponds we can see mallards with baby ducklings and hooded mergansers with baby ducklings.  There are also a number of wood ducks and cinnamon teals mating.

Arlene reports, “I noticed a pair of wood ducks near the pull out at the Fen pond.  I turned around and watched.  The male was courting the female.  A bit later the female flew into the duck box attached to the tree stump in the middle of the water.  She only stayed a few seconds before leaving.”

Click here to see videos of nesting boxes in use!

Below is what a Western Red Cedar looks like the morning after it has been eaten by a beaver!

Now, I am slowly but surely fencing the Western Red Cedars near the ponds.  It is quite a bit of work!  I put the pruned cedar branches by the ponds for the beavers to enjoy as “snacks!”

A New York Times article  gives a good overview on the benefits of  beavers.  A key learning for us at Earth Sanctuary is to plant pines, firs and spruces near the ponds, rather than cedars and willows.

Saturday afternoon, January 10, 2009, bird watchers saw several Ring Necked Ducks on the Earth Sanctuary ponds.  One of the bird watchers told me that he had never seen this duck before.  Grab your binoculars and come out and see them!

Photo from Ed Post’s Flickr account.  Used by permission.

Earth Sanctuary - Spring Equinox:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladyjake/sets/72157604890244749/

Earth Sanctuary - Autumn Equinox:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladyjake/sets/72157602569125382/