It is November. Gullies are soggy. The exact edges of creeks are hard to define. The last leaves are limp yellow rags that drag across my shoulders as I make my way downhill.
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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11/2/23
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On May 10, 2016, then Herron Island ferry captain John Farris posted a photo on the islanders’ group on Facebook with a laconic caption, as was his style, even though the announcement could …
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Joseph Pentheroudakis
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9/27/23
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Dusk, late summer. A deer works the edge of the pasture. A lonely frog, peeping, is answered by a cricket. As the light slips, a bat skitters in and out of the shrinking circle I can see.
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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9/27/23
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The bones look like driftwood from a distance, half-submerged at the high tide line. Binoculars reveal them to be ancient stone artifacts. Or so it seems. This whale carcass is hard to believe.
…
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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9/27/23
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed that three adult harbor seals in Puget Sound tested positive for the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 strain Sept. 8. The seals stranded on …
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Staff Report
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9/14/23
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It is a joy to come across a wasp like this. In the matted thick grass where my pasture will flood in winter, it dances along the stalks, wings flashing, blue-black body orienting this way and that. …
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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8/2/23
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Venus has phases, like the moon. Our neighbor planet is putting on a show these days, high in the western sky, the first point of light to appear as sunset fades. On June 4 it will reach its greatest …
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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5/31/23
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For Jim Watts, spring means time on the road with hundreds of thousands of bees in his truck. One by one he visits an ever-growing list of home orchards, hobby farms, clearcuts and gardens. At each, …
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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4/27/23
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If you want to feel like a shrimp in a kelp forest, a good place to start is in a real forest on a windy day, your back on a log, trees flexing like grasses above you, the sky crowded with clouds …
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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3/29/23
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Q: What’s with the hummingbirds in January? Are they dive-bombing? I thought the high-pitch chirp was a squirrel, but those are hummingbirds?
— Megan Schowalter, Longbranch
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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3/1/23
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On the Key Peninsula of old, you could hire a “beeliner” …
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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3/1/23
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Sara Thompson, KP News
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2/1/23
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Visitors pass through the Key Peninsula and notice only our impressive trees. Those who know the terrain well know how much can be concealed here.
Camouflaged critters exploit psychology as …
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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2/1/23
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I’m not sure how I see them. It is the most turbulent day of winter yet. Wind tears through the firs that surround Key Center. I scuttle across the highway and aim for Capitol Lumber, eyes …
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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11/30/22
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A Key Peninsula tradition — rowing to a favorite spot to set out a crab pot or wading during low tide with a net or a pitchfork to scoop up a meal’s worth of fresh crab — came to a …
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Sara Thompson, KP News
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11/30/22
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On a normal Sunday afternoon in October most Western Washington residents are dodging damp weather to watch a Seattle Seahawks win.
This wasn’t a normal October Sunday. It was 72 degrees and …
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Eddie Macsalka, KP News
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10/27/22
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Last month, writing about what to anticipate in our natural world, I pointed to the return of rain as one of September’s most important events. Hold on. That was two months ago. …
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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10/27/22
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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 …
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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8/31/22
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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 …
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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7/27/22
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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 …
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Chris Rurik, KP News
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6/29/22
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