Tag Archives: critters

Pikes/Pines | The Capitol Hill Superb Owl LVII Spectacular

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A Barred Owl (Image: Brendan McGarry)

If I walked up to a random stranger on the street and said, “Hey, there’s a crow!” I suspect I would either be ignored or looked at with suspicion.

If instead I replaced “crow” with “owl,” I can almost guarantee that I would receive an entirely different reaction. Whether this is because of Harry Potter or because owls look a touch more relatable than other birds (with big heads, large forward facing eyes they might remind us of ourselves), we know and generally like owls. Owls are beautiful, mysterious, and interesting.

Yet, most owls are not very conspicuous and a vast majority of them are nocturnal. A lot of people have never or only rarely seen one in real life. On an average day on the Hill, you are not likely to see an owl. But what if you wanted to? Continue reading →

The Capitol Hill New Year’s coyotes are back (they never left)

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A Capitol Hill coyote spotted in January 2022

Late December and early January reports of Capitol Hill coyotes are an annual tradition.

CHS has received multiple reports of coyote sightings around Volunteer Park to start the new year.

One spotted Wednesday morning in the park was “maybe 40 lbs and completely brazen” according to a CHS reader who emailed us about the canine.

Cold temperatures means more roaming and hunting during daylight hours. In January 2022, CHS reported on sightings of coyotes on patrol in the area and making their way between greenbelts. A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson told us then that coyotes are common year-round in Seattle greenbelts and parks — “whether people see them or not.”

The 2023 reports around Seattle include Capitol Hill and nearby Montlake but also spaces like the public Jefferson Park golf course have put up signs recently warning people of the presence of the wildlife. Continue reading →

First Hill’s Vito’s puts up $1K reward for safe return of Cougar Room mascot after Thanksgiving weekend break-in

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(Image: Vito’s)

First Hill nightclub Vito’s is offering a $1,000 reward for the return of its mountain lion.

Barbara, the big taxidermied puma that has been a centerpiece in the club’s Cougar Room, was ripped off in a break-in at the First Hill joint that has been shuttered since a June fire damaged its E Madison building.

“This weekend thieves broke into Vito’s and among other things, smashed the glass and STOLE our beloved cougar in the COUGAR ROOM,” Vito’s posted about the Thanksgiving weekend heist. “The photos are much too depressing to post, but we suspect these idiots will try and sell, or at least brag about the theft of this antique, large and beautiful mountain lion.” Continue reading →

Pikes/Pines | That sound you heard over Capitol Hill in the middle of the night might have been a bird

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A bird’s eye view of Capitol Hill at night (Image: CHS)

Despite sirens, airplanes, and the overall hum of the city, it is still possible to hear them traveling overhead at night. Not every bird calls during migration, but I expect to hear the thin “seeps” of sparrows and plaintive whispers of thrushes when I step outside on an ideal night in the spring or fall. The weeks between the end of September and just about now are peak travel times for birds pouring south for their wintering grounds. The night before writing this, around 300,000 birds moved over King County.

On a good night, with a full moon, you might even be able to peer at it with binoculars and catch a few birds passing by. One time I caught a small heron, probably a Green Heron, highlighted by a full moon. But that’s not how an estimate of migrating birds happens. In this case I logged into an incredible new website called BirdCast, which uses weather, radar, and a big ol’ heap of machine learning and big data to both forecast and understand migratory patterns of birds. Continue reading →

Pikes/Pines | Behold the spectacular Capitol Hill neighborhood jumping spider, man

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The spider in question — likely in the genus Phanias. (Image: Brendan McGarry)

My mind was drifting on a recent September afternoon. I was stationed at a check-in table for a work event, waiting for my next group of attendees, thinking about not much and everything all at once. And I looked down and saw someone staring up at me.

Rarely do I feel as though I am being truly looked at and pondered by any creature other than human. Of course there are deeply varying worldviews and lines of philosophical and scientific inquiry swirling about this notion. But ultimately, I notice a difference between when a robin looks at me and when say, a jumping spider does.

I was looking down at a jumping spider looking up with what seemed just as much intent. Not running away, nor poised to leap away. Whether I am anthropomorphizing or not, it felt as if we were just calmly looking at one another with a bit of curiosity.

I have written about spiders on Pikes/Pines before — mostly in an effort to dispel the myths about their level of threat to humans on the Hill. While I want to say flat out that you don’t need to be overly fearful of any spiders in Seattle, you certainly don’t need to be afraid of jumping spiders. The jumping spiders around Capitol Hill either will not or cannot harm us without significant effort on our part. But that’s not the point of this writing, instead consider how spectacular they are.

The family Salticidae, the jumping spiders, is the most diverse group of spiders in the world.

Continue reading →

Hey Rat City, Public Health wants to know your thoughts about rodent control in Seattle

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From the Public Health survey

Public Health Seattle-King County wants to hear from you about “what the public knows about rodents and your experiences with rodent control and prevention.”

A new Rodent Prevention and Control Survey has launched to gather feedback as the health department works to “improve our programming and technical assistance offerings” —

“Public Health – Seattle & King County wants to learn more about what the public knows about rodents and your experiences with rodent control and prevention,” the survey’s introduction reads.

The county says it fields complaints about infestations and “neighborhood rodent issues” and and provides information to property owners about rodent control. In some cases, health officials can call in enforcement. There is also a Seattle Sewer Baiting Program if rats show up in your toilet.

The survey’s results will help Public Help shape its programs and resources.

Public Health says the survey has 19 questions and should take approximately 5 minutes to complete. Note: Don’t go chattering about squirrels — “For the purpose of this survey the term ‘rodents’ refers to rats and mice and does not include squirrels and other animals,” Public Health explains.

CHS, meanwhile, wrote about the many rats of Capitol Hill — Black Rats, Brown Rats, Sewer Rats and Norway Rats and Roof Rats, Lab Rats and Pet Rats — here a few years back. Rats populations thrive with access to food and water. Lack of water appears restricting but, what really attracts them is food. Cal Anderson is, of course, famous for its rodent residents but you’ll also find them pretty much everywhere else across the Hill — including, sometimes, in your toilet.

 

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Pikes/Pines | Splendor in the grass: The bees and — the what the heck is that-s! — you’ll find in the lawns of Capitol Hill

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A yet to be identified bee found nesting in my lawn. (Image: Brendan McGarry)

 

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One of the major benefits of paying attention to the natural world is that no matter how long you’ve been doing it, there’s always more to learn. Within the last five years I’ve gone from knowing honey bees, bumblebees, and mason bees to devoting many hours to the breathtakingly nerdy pursuit of studying the wealth of Washington’s native bees.

The best thing about this real life Pokemon pursuit, (I’ll take running around like an idiot staring at zipping dots any day to chasing things that only exist on my phone), is that I don’t actually have to go that far to get stumped. I can just hang out on a lawn and be a lawn-chair melittologist.

With projects like Pollinator Pathways and Capitol Hill Connections it shouldn’t be surprising that you can find interesting insects on the Hill, let alone a bunch of cool bees. The thing about many invertebrate species is that while some require very specific conditions and host plants that are lacking in urban spaces, they also don’t need the same physical space that, say, a wolf does. Some scrubby ground, some flowers with sufficiently tasty nectar, and a dearth of pesticides and a lot of species make it work or even flourish on the Hill even if we don’t get the same diversity a native prairie would have. Continue reading →

‘Savvy survivors’ — Coyote sightings reported across a thawing Capitol Hill

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Thanks to a CHS reader for the video

If you saw unusual tracks in the ice and snow across Capitol Hill over the last week, you may have been onto something.

CHS received reports Wednesday morning including video of at least one coyote on the move in the neighborhood.

Crows squawked and cars came to a careful stop in northeastern Capitol Hill as a coyote was captured on video crossing the street not far from Volunteer Park in an area where the canines have been spotted in the past making their way between greenbelts.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says it is checking with Region 4 biologists about any additional reports from the area this week. Spokesperson Chase Gunnell says, in general, coyotes are common year-round in Seattle greenbelts and parks — “whether people see them or not.” Continue reading →

Thanks to Canopy Cat Rescue, Ella the Capitol Hill cat is safely back home after an adventure high above Volunteer Park

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Safe! Thanks to neighbor Olga for the picture from Wednesday morning’s rescue

The story ends with Ella living happily ever after with her Capitol Hill family she is still getting used to. It begins with concerned neighbors hearing a kitty in distress in the dark of night, stuck up in a 65-foot tree high above Volunteer Park.

Shaun Sears of Canopy Cat Rescue says it was all in a morning’s work.

“This is what we do. Rescue cats that get stuck up in trees.”

This Capitol Hill cat’s cries for help were heard by a passerby late Tuesday night below a huge cedar near the park’s north pond. They marked the location on their phone and posted to the CHS Facebook Group looking for advice on how to help. Continue reading →

Pikes/Pines | Four of the Hill’s spookiest critters that you need not fear

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A species of jumping spider I found in my yard. Cute, but not, not spooky. (Image: Brendan McGarry)

October is a month of harvest, of decay, and of dreariness. Spookiness also pervades as Halloween looms near. A time when the dark afternoons start to crowd in and our human instincts tell us to be wary of the shadows.

Halloween is loaded with symbolism, some are reserved for the haunted corners of our imagination, and others are around us on a daily basis. Whether their connection to this most spooky of holidays make sense or not, the following few animals of the Hill are deeply ingrained in the popular culture that surrounds Halloween.

  • Spiders: Where humans gained a fear of spiders is much debated, partially because arachnophobia is not borne of rational thought. Then again, neither is my fear of zombies after watching a scary movie and spiders are actually real. The good news is that spiders are mostly scared or at least disinterested in humans and the rare bites that are medically significant don’t happen out of malice. Spiders have venom to help them hunt, immobilize, and even liquify their prey, not to run around biting people with. More people have died from cows than spiders. That being said, I would be lying if I said I wanted to snuggle up with a spider. But that doesn’t mean I don’t find them beautiful, because the approximately 50,000 species of spiders described by science represent tremendous diversity in size, shape, color, and life history. Some species, like jumping spiders, can be downright cute. Our cultural fear of spiders doesn’t leave room for the fact that spiders are natural pest control and are food for other animals like birds – just like bats and owls, they’re a part of the ecosystems we live in and share, even the indoor spaces where spiders help keep other unwelcome insects in check. Continue reading →