Category: Animals
-
Horse Eye | East Wenatchee, WA | June 2019 Equine workings must delight mechanical engineers. Sensors (eyes, ears, nose) in the head, fuel processor (stomach, intestines) in the torso, conveyors (legs) underneath — a big, beautiful, living machine in which
-
Pelican | West Richland, WA | June 2019 Strangers often rouse suspicion. Where do they come from? What do they want? A fisherman near Horn Rapids on the Yakima River spit chew and jutted his chin at the flock of white pelicans perched midstream. “What the hell are they doing here?” he asked. “They eat…
-
Ceiling | Pullman, WA | June 2019 Look up. It’s the angle on life that’s consistently surprising. Skywriting, shooting stars, birds in the rafters of Home Depot. Meanwhile, ground-level activities such as food, phones, friends, football distract us from the
-
Cows Grazing | Dusty, WA | June 2019 Standing in a field doing nothing has to be one of life’s most underrated activities. It’s just you and the grass — and the insects, rodents, reptiles, birds, cows, breezes, sunshine and soul of the farmer who planned and planted the whole thing. All there, relaxed in…
-
Feral Cat | East Wenatchee, WA | May 2019 Urban Nature Series | Our neighborhood’s free-roaming felines have admirable qualities. Cleverness: They’ve trained numerous homeowners to feed them daily. Resourcefulness: They sleep in winter under the warm engines of just-parked vehicles. Hopefulness: They freeze like statues (see photo) near bird feeders to
-
Marmot | East Wenatchee, WA | May 2019 Urban Nature Series | Marmots are maddening critters. Just ask our poodle, who is tortured by their warning chirps from rocky ridges. “Over here! No! Over here!” I watch our dog dash frantically back and forth, chirp to chitter, and know that could be me — with…
-
At Roost | Twisp, WA | May 2019 Urban Nature Series | Ah, the joys of solitude. To sit solo and know alone does not mean lonely. Untethered, we can follow our own internal clocks — wake when ready, eat when hungry, pause whenever to ponder. We gaze
-
Robin’s Egg | East Wenatchee, WA | May 2019 Urban Nature Series | Promise comes in small packages. Tiny beings, big ideas, expansive feelings (acceptance, forgiveness) can drop from the sky. As always, I have
-
Gander | Entiat, WA | May 2019 Mr. Wiggins, my first boss after college, often waddled down the office hall honking orders at subordinates. His fluff and bluff had little effect on our work. But one afternoon, Mr. Wiggins entered my cubicle and declared, “I have wisdom for you.” He leaned toward me and, in…
-
Quail | East Wenatchee, WA | April 2019 We see what dangles before our eyes. That’s easy. But don’t you sometimes sense there’s more? That maybe something exists behind the everyday veil, out of focus, beyond reach? When the light is right, my peripheral vision catches
IrwinFoto 