The Voice of the Key Peninsula

Chris Rurik, KP News

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“There’s so many factors that come into play. Maybe the native bees have been killed off by backyard folks spraying the previous summer for yellow jackets.”
Soggy Spring and Low Pollination Lead to Low Fall Fruit
The fruit harvest will be low in home orchards across the Key Peninsula this year. more
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Tracking the Lost Conifer, Western White Pine
“What pines? Where are these pines?” asked my birding friend after I mentioned I’d been getting to know western white pine, the forgotten conifer of our Key Peninsula forest. more
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Diseased Douglas fir trees are typically rotten inside.
Trees Come Down at Camp Seymour to Improve the Forest
In 2018 the top broke off a tall Douglas fir and fell into YMCA Camp Seymour’s amphitheater, smashing several rows of benches and destroying the fire pit ring. No campers were present at the … more
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There are more than 500 crayfish species in the world, with over 300 in the United States.
What to Watch for This Month
Welcome to September. Short and golden blaze the final days of summer. The atmosphere stirs. Chickadees, nuthatches, creepers and kinglets gather into acrobatic groups. Blackberries are again … more
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Jellyfish like this one lined the shores of Von Geldern Cove before turning brown like glass in the sun.
Jellyfish Stranded in Staggering Numbers
A mass stranding of lion’s mane jellyfish shocked Key Peninsula beach walkers during the second week of August — and made swimmers think twice about getting in the water. “I have never seen … more
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Anise swallowtail
Land of Parasitic Plants and Surprisingly Hidden Beauty
Ever seen a groundcone? This summer two people have sent me snapshots of this strange plant. A groundcone looks about how it sounds, like a pine cone growing out of the ground, translucent yellow and … more
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Under a downed tree, a footpath for deer and raccoons.
Where Eagles Gathered
This is a tale of two homes. They sit side by side above me, a low old house among big trees and a nearly finished new construction. I am here to watch the eagle show. The homes overlook one of … more
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Johnson South Sound Preserve
Around the Hidden Lagoon
The muddy easement passes two just-built houses and a fifth-wheel before plunging into the woods. Then the roadbed itself plunges down a ravine. A landslide has scooped away the hillside below, … more
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Longbranch Marina, circa 2003
New Longbranch Pumpout Station Delayed Indefinitely
Plans to build a pumpout station at the Longbranch Marina, designed to give boaters a way to empty their sewage tanks, was halted by an unexpected permitting roadblock because of a shared well that … more
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Yellowlegs wading
Watch for Yellowlegs, Honeysuckle and More
Listen for the loud “klee-klee-klee” call of greater yellowlegs in estuaries and flooded fields. This shorebird passes through the Key Peninsula during spring and fall migrations. Watch … more
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Deep in the Tree Frog's Chorus
At last, I find a frog. It is spread-eagled in the shallow water like a lost toy. Its throat floats before it as round and sheer as a soap bubble, pushing its head up. It looks almost pathetic as it … more
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Fishing Under the Bridge
While drivers rattle the Purdy bridge in cars and trucks, fly fishers often stand thigh deep in saltwater below at the mouth of the Burley Lagoon, their attention fixed on a far different … more
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Where Beaches Are Born
Agates and oysters. A clear tide. Stories.  I am south of Driftwood Annie’s point, strolling Pitt Passage with two veteran beach walkers. The going is wonderfully slow. “It … more
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A female Bufflehead cruises in front of the orange reflecting sunrise early one morning.
Naturalist's Notebook
All this rain has flooded the nearby pastures. You know your pond has just about become a lake when the regular dabblers like mallards and wigeons are joined by diving … more
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North Herron Road
Amplified King Tide Causes Dramatic Flooding
One of the highest tides of 2022 was predicted for just after sunrise Friday, Jan 7. Daylight revealed a tide two feet higher than the prediction. Seawater filled the parking lot of Purdy’s … more
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On a Ramble, Raven-watching in the New Year
Let’s take a ramble. Let’s head through this soggy pasture and aim for the woods. Think of all we’ve seen in the last year on the KP, the encounters with deer and moths, the … more
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Naturalist's Notebook
A Beaver Poop Mystery The dam is deep in a thicket and quite small. To reach it I’m forced to crab-walk into the lively creek below it. Salmonberry canes extract the small blood offering … more
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Deck the Halls: When the KP Grew Holly
The Key Peninsula once worked hard every December to deck the halls of America with boughs of holly. For a brief decade in the 1930s, one of the most promising crops in the South Puget Sound area was holly. more
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The view from the shore of Filucy Bay Preserve.
Chasing Silence and Sound in Filucy Bay Preserve
As I work my way down a forested draw in Filucy Bay Preserve, tree frogs call. Ferns and logs guide me through a series of pinch points where deer have squeezed before me. more
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Wandering Bands of Berry Hunters
Fall again. Hea vy sunflower heads have fallen and the clouds of goldfinches that came for their seeds have scattered into the trees. Rain falls and rotting resumes. Down come the soggy stems of … more
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