WENATCHEE NATURALIST STORIES: CHAPTER 13

During the Wenatchee Naturalist course, each participant visits their own field site and makes weekly field journal observations.  At the end of the course, each person creates a presentation, sharing insights gained during field site visits.  The trio of Rick Hourigan, Carole Borshard, and Sherry Doolittle highlighted their wildlife observations in clever ways.

Rick Hourigan designed a customized spreadsheet to summarize his cumulative bird species sightings by 5 counties and  2 regions of Washington, using color-codes for bird abundance.  He’d been watching and recording personal bird sightings in North Central Washington for decades by writing notes in his own field guide books. The unexpected loss of one of his most-used field guides triggered this idea to convert to a summary spreadsheet.  Rick included live links to the Seattle Audubon Birdweb website for easy access to species accounts.  Rick will use this web-based tool in the field on his cell phone to enter and archive future bird observations.  What a great example of using technology in the field to enhance his own  natural history experience.

Carole Borshard

Carole created a personal narrative movie (unfortunately too big to post on this blog!) featuring field journal excerpts of the wildlife and plants she photographed, sketched, and painted  along her Peshastin-area Irrigation pipeline field site.

Carole records into her field journal by sketching and painting what her eyes are seeing.

 

Sherry Doolittle’s field site was Dry Gulch in the south Wenatchee foothills. She is a retired elementary teacher, and using these skills as a docent at Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center.

Dry Gulch Coyote

By Sherry Doolittle

I am coyote.  I live in the Shrub steppe Dry Gulch area north of Saddle Rock.  I was ‘discovered’ by the white man when Lewis and Clark were making their way to the Pacific.  They called me the prairie wolf after first thinking I was some kind of fox. The Native American Indians revered me as almost a deity and sometimes a trickster because I am so clever.  I was often instrumental in helping them to understand human nature.

Once the wolf was extirpated from much of America, I became the despised archpredator to be eliminated.  The campaign against me, led by the livestock industry and approved by Congress, was brutal even though no scientific studies had been done that would have shown I was no major threat to big game animals or sheep and cattle.

Between 1947 and 1956 approximately 6.5 million of us were killed. By 1970, the poisoning, for the most part ended, but today, Wildlife Services on behalf of the sheep industry aerial guns down about 80,000 of us every year.  I’ve not only survived this persecution, but thrived because of my intelligence and wariness and my ability to adapt my behavior and number of pups I produce.  I will even abandon pack behavior to spread out singly and in pairs if hunted extensively. I’ve expanded my range across all of America and even into big cities.  You will rarely, if ever, see me here at Dry Gulch, but I am here all the time.  I see you and your dogs. Because I view your dog as an intruder in my territory, I make sure I leave my scat and urine on the trails to tell them so.

My life is good here.  I blend in perfectly with the Big sagebrush, Antelope Bitterbrush, Bluebunch wheatgrass, and dry rocky areas for I am the browns, tans, and grays of those colors.

I am an opportunistic eater and have enough food for my needs here in this Dry Gulch area.  I will eat anything I can find including insects, fruits, and berries, but I prefer the Northern Pocket gopher, Deer mouse, Pygmy rabbit, and Sage grouse.  If I’m lucky, I might catch a Northern Fence lizard or a Garter snake or find a fawn to feast upon.  I hunt mostly at dawn and dusk, but in lean times, I will hunt during the day.  Even then you will not see me.  My keen eyesight, superior sense of smell, and acute hearing keep me informed and help me to hide when you are in the area.  Dry Gulch is frequented by many of you with your dogs, most of which are running loose.  I am especially wary then.

The next time you hike on the trails at Dry Gulch, watch for my scat. You won’t see me, but I will certainly be watching you.

Sources of information:  “How the Most Hated Animal in America Outwitted us All,” by Simon Worralll, August 7, 2016, National Geographic.com

Https://nationalgeographic.com/2016/coyote-american-dan-flores-science/    Living with Wildlife Coyotes, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Adapted from “Living with Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest” http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/living.htm