Bucolic is boring, perhaps, but it definitely describes island life this past winter. To our everlasting relief there was no snow at all & only a few windstorms that never seemed to live up to their potential. We had power outages, but never long enough to have to consider a move to a motel for a few days.The recession has resulted in a small silver lining here on the island. The developers have crawled back into their holes until the financial climate improves. But they'll be back. The island is just too luscious, too ripe not to be raped, & they're just biding their time.
The whales, after wintering in Southern California, have turned up here on their usual spring stopover in Puget Sound before moving further north. The sound used to be rich with shrimp, which the greys love, & the two native pods of orcas look for chinook salmon. Orcas are fascinating animals. Our native pods return & spend the summer in the waters around the San Juan Islands & Vancouver Island in Canada, but there are a few groups of transient orcas who generally troll the coast & feast on seals & occasiononally a grey whale. Several weeks ago a pod of transient orcas appeared in the sound & was seen to trap & attack a grey whale just below our house, while many people stood helplessly by & watched in horror. The poor grey was mortally wounded & eventually died & washed up on a beach further south. No one has ever been able to supply an explanation to account for such a wide divergence in diets between the transients & natives.
David is fighting what is probably a losing battle with a group of robins that continue to try & build nests on top of our window moldings. Last year he gave up on one robin couple who completed a nest & subsequently raised 3 offspring but this year he's determined to thwart their efforts. He says robins have no redeeming value but are able to spread the word to others they know that home sites on our moldings are safe & sheltered from the elements. But we're beginning to feel like victims from "The Birds". We can't understand their determination in the face of the constant frustration of David's "broom sweeps" as well as the fact that dense woods that surround our house that would surely be a better choice. Note the messy construction as well as what looks like 2 nests. We're wondering is one is meant to be a decoy or merely a start that turned out badly.
