#pacific western

[backwoodspriestess]

Southwest Oregon, a favorite old house of mine.

[pickleweed2]

Intricate cascading roots on a Western Hemlock, Tsuga heterophylla.

Olympic National Park| 11-30-2023

[pnwander]

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Today is apparently ANGRY STABBY BIRB DAY.

I was taking a walk on the boardwalk out near Bolstadt in Long Beach, when I came across this western grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) stranded on the path ahead of me. It looked alert and uninjured, so chances were just that it couldn't take flight off of the hard surface, but I called Peninsula Wild Care anyway to see if they wanted to bring it in for a checkup.

They quickly coordinated a couple of volunteers to meet me nearby, and I needed to get the grebe out of the way since a lot of people walk their dogs there and not all of them are on leashes. I figured okay, this is a relatively small bird, not as big as the muscovies I've carted around on the farm, and it seems calm, right?

NOPE. As I tried to gently reach for the grebe it turned from a calm, if confused pile of feathers on the decking to Stabby McStabberson, and I very nearly got jabbed and nipped a few times by a long, pointy beak attached to a surprisingly agile and very much NOT happy bird. I ended up having to take my hoodie off and dropping it over the entire grebe, and only when the lights were out could I bundle it up and carry it over to the meeting place.

Since it was pretty energetic, not obviously sick or injured, and its body condition felt decent (at least through the hoodie) I'm hoping it's going to get released soon enough after a checkup and a nice meal of fish. Many waterbirds have a lot of trouble taking off from hard surfaces because their feet are so far back on their bodies--which is great for swimming and water takeoffs, but not so helpful on land. If the bird had stayed stranded there they could have been injured or killed by another animal, or ended up dehydrated.

So let's hear it for Stabby the Angry Grebe, and wish them a good release back into the wild!

[orofeaiel]

Western Harebell

[hesbuckcompton-baby]

I Know The End, Phoebe Bridgers / Masters of The Air (2024) / SAS: Rogue Heroes, Season 1 (2022) / All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) / Generation Kill (2008) / Band of Brothers (2001) / The Pacific (2010) / Jojo Rabbit (2019) / Saving Private Ryan (1998) / 1917 (2019) / Dunkirk (2017) / War Horse (2011) / The Pianist (2002)

[rockpaperscissuhs]

“A hospital alone shows what war is.” - Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

[coolthingsguyslike]

[pamietniko]

beautiful details in a winter forest

Snoqualmie, Washington

[pretty-little-fools]

[backwoodspriestess]

A valley in the siskiyou’s on my old digicam <3 I am forever divinely enthralled by these mountains

[emaadsidiki]

Fort Baker Pier & The Golden Gate 🎣🎏

[pnwander]

western tanager

[seabeck]

Yellow bonnets, species unknown

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Settle In with the Sockeye Salmon

The sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), also known as the red salmon, or the blueback salmon, is one of thirteen species of salmon endemic to the north Pacific Ocean. In their juvenile years they live in the open sea, but as fresh hatchlings and adults they can be found in freshwater rivers and streams. However, the subspecies known as the kokanee salmon are trapped in landlocked lakes and do not migrate as other sockeye salmon do. When migrating, the species can venture well inland to western North America and portions of eastern Asia, including Japan, Russia, and parts of Siberia.

Like most salmon, the sockeye is most famous for its lifecycle. It is an anadromous species, meaning that individuals migrate based on their life state. Newly hatched fry emerge from nests laid in the beds of freshwater systems, and spend their first 1-3 years before moving downstream to the ocean. There, they spend another 4-5 years in schools of up to several hundred, before they reach sexual maturity.

Beginning in July, mature adults begin the great migration back to the area in which they spawned. Once they reach their breeding grounds, males form into strict heirarchical groups and begin to court the available females. Meanwhile, each female digs a shallow nest in the riverbed and lays her eggs. Her chosen male partner-- or several-- lays a cloud of sperm over the eggs. A male may fertilize several nests before he dies; the female perishes soon after. The eggs, laid in clutches of up to 200, take approximately 40 days to hatch, at which point the cycle begins again.

As juveniles living in the ocean, red salmon are somewhat unremarkable. They have long, torpedo-shaped bodies that are generally silvery blue in color, sometimes with dark speckling. Individuals retain this coloring until well into their journy as adults, where males and females begin to significantly diverge. At their peak, adults may be anywhere from 60 to 84 cm (2 ft 0 in – 2 ft 9 in) in length and weigh from 2.3 to 7 kg (5–15 lb), with males being somewhat larger than females. Both males and females also change color; the head turns green, while the body turns bright red, although the color change is more striking in males. Finally, the shape of the male changes drastically, with the mouth becoming more hooked and the body growing a large hump.

Unlike other salmon, both adults and juvenile O. nerka feed throughout their lives. Fry and ocean-bound juveniles feed mainly on copepods and other zooplankton, while migrating adults also consume larger insects and invertebrates. Young blueback salmon are vulnerable to predation from larger fish such as lake trout, squawfish, and mountain whitefish, as well as larger invertebrates and frogs. Individuals living in the ocean are less predated upon, although they can still be caught by larger animals such as seals, sea lions, and sharks. Terminal-stage adults are large, easy targets and are consumed by a range of species; most namely bears and large birds such as gulls and eagles.

Conservation status: The IUCN considers the sockeye salmon to be of Least Concern. However, the species is listed on the United States Endangered Species Act. Populations have declined significantly throughout its range, largly due to overfishing, habitat degredation and the destruction of their breeding grounds.

Photos

NOAA Fisheries

Sergei Gorshkov

Roger Phillips

[3liza]

I'm glad western streamers have been gettinto indie games from Russia and Asia, especially horror games since horror is such a communicative genre and says so much about cultural mores, but I wish these cavalier white dudes would have a little more curiosity about the foundations of the imagery and neuroses the games are communicating with. whenever I see or play games from outside my home culture I'm always desperately curious about what I'm MISSING as a white American and it's always so satisfying and educational when I am able to have it explained to me or if I can look it up, even though I know I can only perceive it as an outsider. just stuff I'm ignorant about, like for some recent examples I can remember, stuff like Buddhist funeral objects or symbolism, Japanese vowel order, Russian Orthodox convent history, apartment layouts and community organization in Soviet housing blocs, uhhh let's see what else. candle and food symbolism around death and traditional forms of ghosts in the Philippines. customs and uses of, and gender issues around, communal bath houses in rural Japan. that kind of thing. i really really miss the few years where you really could type any of those topics into the Google search bar and usually get some kind of factual information written by humans. it's not impossible to look stuff up anymore but I can't express how easy it used to be.