A STUDY AND MEDITATION ON THE ANIMAL AND PLANT WISDOM OF THE GAIAN TAROT JUSTICE CARD – SPOTTED OWL

I’ve been working on a study of the Animal and Plant Wisdom from the 12  endangered species shown in Joanna Powell Colbert’s  Gaian Tarot Justice Card.  Eventually I plan to pull these together into a comprehensive tarot spread concerning living justly, in the mean time I have been pondering and reflecting on each plant and animal and searching for the wisdom questions they might hold for me and others.

I’m starting here with Spotted Owl.  Read, ponder, reflect, enjoy.

Photo from http://www.oregonwild.org

A STUDY AND MEDITATION ON THE ANIMAL AND PLANT WISDOM OF THE GAIAN TAROT JUSTICE CARD – SPOTTED OWL

I’ve  had some incredible experiences with owls, including the Spotted Owl.  This bird is rarely seen and few have had the fortune to come across it or even hear it.  As a kid and young adult I spent a great deal of time in the old growth forests of Oregon, where these birds live.  Though I don’t recall coming face to face with one, as I have with other owls, I do recall with striking clarity the times I have been standing amongst the majestic elders of an old growth forest and heard this owl call.

The spotted owl needs old growth to thrive.  And as most are aware, old growth trees are in high demand, bringing some of the highest dollars per tree in the forestry industry.  And so, we have the conflict that was brought to the forefront of most of the western world not too long ago.  The Spotted Owl became the target species of environmentalist trying to stop the harvest of old growth forests and in turn the Spotted Owl became the target of many an outraged forester who felt his livelihood being threatened.  Whether you side with the forester or the environmentalist, this issue is not as black and white as many would like to have it seem.  And that’s coming from an environmentalist.  An environmentalist with a family history of foresters.

The food on my mother’s table as a kid growing up in a logging town in Oregon was the result of trees being cut down, roads being built and spotted owl and other species habitats being slowly or quickly in some cases stripped away.  I remember, as my inner environmentalist was budding, having conversations with my mother about these very issues.  I learned that, though it would be nice for it to be black and white, these issues never are.  Finding balance and harmony in a world that often struggles with change of any kind is not an easy thing.

The Spotted Owl is not a quickly adaptable species, unlike the Barred Owl who has moved into and beyond the territory of the Spotted Owl.  The Barred Owl, a close relative to the Spotted Owl, seems to have the ability to live and even thrive in a wide range of habitats, including the second growth that grows up after old growth forests are replanted.  They even live and successfully raise young in the small parks and preserves in major cities.  The Spotted Owl however seems to be less versatile and is thus in more danger of extinction due to habitat loss, and where the Barred Owl has moved into these areas as well, they are in competition for resources.  Many people look at the Barred Owl in a poor light due to this, but really, I wonder if that is short-sighted.  Perhaps nature takes a longer view.  As things change on our planet species evolve, cross-breed and change over a long period of time to adjust to those environmental changes.  Only with human action, these changes are happening at a far greater rate than perhaps many of the species can handle.  Will the Spotted Owl have a change to evolve to handle the loss of its prime habitat?  Time will tell.

Personally I believe we have cut more than enough of the old growth forests and that the remaining should be left alone.  We, as a species and as a culture have ways of creating livelihoods and resources that should free us from the idea that these incredible forest habitats should be cut down for any reason.  But humans are slow to adapt as well, especially when it comes to the bottom line, livelihood, and changes in the way we live.  So will these last remaining precious habitats be saved?  Again, time will tell.  I can only hope so.  What is done is done though.  There is no going back.  No magic wand powerful enough to restore what is lost forever.  What counts is what we do now and in the future.

As humans it is easy to judge, rant, philosophize, choose sides, point fingers and so on.  But for the owls, they have to just keep going, doing what they can with what is available and leaving the future to the future.  And there in is the key to what I believe is, in part, the wisdom of Spotted Owl:  Living each day, using what is available to you, and only what you need to thrive.  Keep on keeping on and trust Mother Nature to work out the balance, she’s got eons of experience at such matters, and if we are willing to stop and listen to Her wisdom perhaps we can learn how to find balance in our own lives.

So the questions for Spotted Owl are these:

How can I learn to find balance in my life, where I take no more than I need to thrive, and concern myself with no more than what is before me in each moment, so that I can live more justly for the good of all?

How might I evolve or change to better live in this changing environment?

How can I facilitate deep listening and seeing to hear and see the wisdom of Mother Nature.

What wisdom do I need most to live justly?

You can see more picture of the Spotted Owl and hear its call at http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Strix&species=occidentalis

Adventures: East and West

This past weekend we spent a lot of time outside exploring some of our favorite places.  First on Saturday we headed East to look at wildflowers and birds and the amazing landscape that is the Washington scrub land.

We make this trip at least once a year and a must for me is to stop at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park to see the ever faithful Say’s Phoebe that nests there.  I love these birds but they usually stay on the east side of the mountains so I don’t get to see them that often.  I’m happy to report that a nest was being sat upon!

I had the rare treat of adding a couple life birds on this trip as well when both Horned Lark and Sage Thrasher decided to cooperate.  Great birds!!!  Other feathered highlights were all the Osprey, Eagles, Turkey Vultures, Swallows, Loons (calling), Magpies, and Ravens.  We even came across a raven nest high up on a rock face, with squawking baby ravens and adults flying into feed them!

Raven’s nest can be seen in the crack at about the midpoint of the photo.

Mammals seen included both a native Jackrabbit and the non-native cottontail rabbits, Mule Deer, Elk, Golden-mantled ground squirrel, and a marmot.

The wildflowers were lovely as well, one of these days I hope I get to go over there and spend more time with a field guide and learn more than my dozen or so I can identify in that region.

Oddly enough I spent more time looking at the flowers than taking their pictures!

We spent some time just lazing about the spectacular weather too.

The View from my comfy grassy spot.

Laying back on Mother Earth.

Mark communing with the Great Columbia River.

Us, having a wonderful hike in the Ginkgo Wanapum  Recreation Area.

Then Sunday we headed out to a great natural area near the university called The Fill.  This is a spectacular place to look for birds.  We visit often.  Here’s a few photos for highlights:

A turtle with attitude!

While we were watching a red-winged blackbird it  got irritated with a heron poking around to close to its nesting area.  The next scene happened too fast to get a shot of, but the Red-winged Blackbird landed on the Heron’s back and was pulling at its feathers – Ouch!  The Heron landed in front of us, shook the blackbird off and tried to walk nonchalantly away.  But that blackbird stood ankle high next to it and scolded and scolded!  Bold little fellla!

 

The Heron went about hunting, and quite successfully, too!

One last picture, love this “bloomin’ time of year!”

Trash and Treasures

Beach Trash 2/29/12

The above is a picture of the TRASH I collected off of a couple small sections of North and South Alki in only a few minutes.

So what’s the TREASURE?  The fact that these parks exist.  That they are there for me and everyone else to enjoy.  That they provide habitat for birds and sea creatures too numerous to count.  These parks are treasures just as every park, public land, and wild space  out there are treasures.  Treasures we should never forget to… treasure.

She Wiggles Her Fingers and Toes

I’ve been walking daily since Winter Solstice.  Forty-one winter walks so far.  Here in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle especially, it is known for dark wet winter days, yet not even a quarter of those walks have been in the rain.  Each day, be it overcast, partly sunny, fully sunny, drizzling, pouring, or a little of everything, has had its own unique beauty. Especially so near the water as my walks often are, lending the changing moods and colors of the Puget Sound to the beauty of the walks.

These walks have really opened my eyes to many things and as I spend time writing in my journal about them I find myself discovering new ways of seeing and embracing the season that is winter.  Last winter I spent a large portion of the time in a very terrible state of situational depression and I was determined that this year would be different, though many of the situations lending to it are still present in my life… being outside everyday has been at the least distracting and more often healing.  I can not recommend this practice more.

I find my journal writing waxing poetic, especially on the days that are mild enough for me to plop down under a tree or on the beach, taking it all in in detail and writing it all down right there in the moment.

In my writing today I found I was likening this time of year as the time in yoga practice where you are just beginning to wiggle your toes and fingers at the end of a lovely shavasana, the deep relaxing time at the end of any good yoga practice.  The earth in this northern region has been in her own shavasana – not asleep, she never truly sleeps – but resting, gathering her energy to her and now she’s beginning to wiggle her fingers and toes.  The energy begins to rise from the earth and find direction.  It’s in the swelling of the soft furry magnolia blossoms, the several inches of bulbs bursting forth from the earth,and the witch hazel already blooming joined by the alder trees and soon the daphne and Indian Plum.  It’s in all this and more.  The Pacific Wrens are testing out portions of their songs, the nettles are peaking up under the fallen leaves and the water birds are getting frisky.

It’s also happening in the people.  Gardeners are out in their yards, even under grey skies, weeding and cutting back last years growth, they look up and smile from the inside out as I pass by.  The people that get out there, outside, close to the earth show the signs of the season the most. While other still glare out the window at the light drizzle forgetting the beauty of the bright sun from the day before, mumbling how it’s always raining.  I wish I could encourage those latter folk to put on their shoes and coats and wander outside and take time to look for the beauty that is there each day, waiting to lift the spirit and redirect the mind and heart to brighter ways of being.

Do you have a winter practice of being outdoors?  How is the earth wiggling her fingers and toes where you are?

Almost Spring

The lady across the street was throwing bread crusts out for the birds and the gulls and crows wheeled in circles, swooping in, flying high, landing on her roof, then mine all the time calling their distinct calls.  The adult gulls are getting their clean white feathered heads that they get going into breeding season, leaving the feathers of winter behind.  Signs of the passing of winter and the coming of spring.

It’s funny that the lady across the street should choose this day of all days to feed the birds, for I have never seen her do so before. (Well unless you count the fact that her cat’s food, which is kept on her porch gets raided by the starlings from time to time.)  In some traditions and cultures this day is a day to celebrate, and one such way to celebrate this day is to leave an offering of food or milk for animals.  We did this by filling up our bird feeders again for the first time in a long time and to use the idea of milk, once I pick some more up from the store, our kitties will get a special treat.  One of my cats will be especially happy about this, she would worship cows if she knew they were the source of her most favorite treat.

Leaving offerings for the creatures of nature is just one way to celebrate today. Today is Imbolc, the half way point between winter and spring and another thing we will be doing today is burning our old paper snowflakes to usher winter out.  And in the coming days we’ll be walking in our neighborhood and parks and continue looking for signs of spring, which are already beginning to unfold.

Another ancient concept for this day has to do with a burning flame, often connected to the goddess Brigid or later St. Brigid and in the catholic Candlemas, the virgin Mary.  Since I tend to look at things in relation to nature more, for me this is a time where the sun grows even stronger and the light it brings ushers in new life and the creative forces of nature.  I celebrated this yesterday by letting my own inner creative flame inspire a bit of painting.

I call this piece ‘Almost Spring’.  Where the sky is a kaleidescope of blues, the hills are a patchwork of new greens, yet the oak tree, one of the last trees in our area to leaf out, still seems to slumber, waiting patiently for it’s time to unfold new leaves and join in the symphony of new growth and birds singing their spring songs.  A girl in her spring colored dress hugs the quiet oak, urging it to wake and at the same time drawing strength from it to wait patiently for the Equinox and all that it will bring.

Happy Almost Spring, dear readers.

10th Anniversary – Part 3 – Cannon Beach

After our very wet hike on Friday we headed north to Cannon Beach looking for a sit down coffee shop where we could dry out and warm up.  We weren’t having much luck finding what we were looking for, one place was closed, and the other didn’t look very sit down cozy like.  So we ended up going to the small local history museum to start with.  It was free, which was a very nice bonus since we were on a super tight budget and still hoping for a warm coffee eventually.  We spent just shy of a couple hours walking through the museum, learning some fun history of the area.  My favorite story was about a woman who’s husband had been the mail carrier  but also had other things he had to do as well.  She finally convinced him to let her carry the mail and she did so with a horse who had a hankering to eat clay along the trail.  Here are a couple pics from that section of the museum.

I’m an adventurous sort and in another time and with better health I would have been this kind of lady – doing whatever it took to get a break from the monotony of housework and to get a little adventure.  I think people like Lewis and Clark, John Muir, and other explorers (and naturalists) of past times had the best jobs ever.  Of course I don’t agree with the methods of all those early explorers or the way some of them treated the native people of the lands they explored.  But still, the excitement of constant new discovery, never knowing what was around the next bend, all that appeals to me in deep ways.  So I love reading stories about people who lead lives like that, especially women who were outside their time in the things they did.  This museum had some good writers and designers working together to make it a very interesting place to visit and if anyone reading this is ever in the area, I do highly recommend it.  Here’s their website.

After the museum we tried finding a cozy coffee spot again and finally just gave into finding some hot coffee.  We took our coffee and parked the car near the beach and sat watching the mist and low clouds move over the water and make haystack rock appear and disappear.  Mark read his book for a while.  I watched birds and did little sketches and made notes in my sketch journal.  It was during that time that I tried to sketch something we had seen a little earlier when driving up to a look out to see if the tide was out enough for a walk on the beach yet.  I had to apologize to all eagles everywhere due to the sketch, but these pictures capture the moment pretty well, including how thick the mist was.

The eagle in the above pictures was standing only twenty feet or so away from where we pulled up and was eating the remains of a bird.  I saw it tear off a chunk of meat and swallow it down while Mark took the pictures.  The eagle was sopping wet and was being harassed by gulls.  It  eventually picked up the bird carcass and flew further down the beach.  What an awesome bit of nature in the raw to see up close.

After finishing those coffees we did finally head out for a walk on the beach and within moments of getting out of the car the slight break in the rain and mist passed nad we were getting drenched all over again.  It was pointless trying to use my binoculars so there were many mystery birds flying in and around haystack rock that I never got to be sure of what they were.  Though, I believe I did hear some Black Turnstones and there was one Canada Goose floating about in one of the large tide pools, which was a little odd to see.  We managed a couple pics but then the camera had to be put safely out of the rain again.

As I walked along the beach we picked up trash and Mark and I stuffed it in our pockets till we could get back to a trash can.  The amount of plastic trash, small and large on the beaches during our visit was heart breaking.  I plan on sharing more about that in another post and share some pictures too.

In the mean time I will share that the lack of cozy place to sit and have organic coffee got both of us to thinking about what it would be like to fill that niche somewhere in the north coast area, maybe even Cannon Beach.  We talked about what we would do, what the place would be like, who would do what, how we would make things awesome and green and cozy and relaxing and fun.  We dreamed quite a bit and since we got back we’ve talked about it several more times.  It’s not a now thing, but who knows – it could be a future thing… because anyone who has been to the Oregon Coast in the winter and pretty much any time of the year knows that there are plenty of days where a cozy place for yummy beverages is just what’s needed – a place to dry out our webbed feet!

10th Anniversary Trip – Part 2 – Oswald West State Park

Thursday’s afternoon and evening misting rain turned to a heavy rain shortly after crawling into the tent for the night.  When we woke the next morning it was still coming down, and hard.  We had known this would be the case, so it wasn’t as big of a deal as it could have been.  We had planned for it.  Hard core rain gear, extra layers and we set out for a bit of hiking.  I wanted to take Mark into one of my favorite coastal state parks – Oswald West State Park.  The man the park was named after was the 14th Governor of Oregon and responsible for the first part of making sure Oregon’s coastal beaches remained public for all time.  The second part of that process was handled by Governor Tom McCall nearly fifty years later after a hotel not far from where we were staying on our trip found a loop hole and tried to privatize a strip of sandy beach.  It’s a fun bit of Oregon  history and I for one am grateful to those men and the ones who worked with them to make sure that Oregon’s beaches would remain completely public.

Oswald West State Park is an amazing State Park.  It is not overly developed. The one walk in camping area was closed several years back after some very old spruce trees started coming down, one landing on a tent that had just moments before been vacated.  It wasn’t deemed safe after some arborist’s checked out the remaining trees around the camp and so it has turned into a day use area.  I am saddened by this is a way, because I never managed to camp there, the one time I tried it was filled up and I had to change my plans.  In another way, the area could use time to recover, for the now downed logs to become life-giving nurse logs and for the forest to grow back up in the area that was once the campground.  Maybe some day it will be safe again, maybe not.

The hiking in this park is magnificent.  There is the hike up to the top of Neakahnie Mountain or out to Arch Cape, both of which I will have to take my husband on another time, since they were socked in by low clouds, fog and mist the day we could have hiked them.  Instead we stayed low, following the trail along a creek, past ancient Spruce and Western Hemlock and a few Cedars.  Their feet adorned with the lush and rampant greenery of salal, huckleberry, sword and deer ferns and many other coastal forest plant.  The creek rushed down through boulders, over small falls, around old root balls of trees and down into the pounding surf of Short Sands beach in the amazing Smuggler’s  Cove.  Waterfalls rush off the coastal cliffs and down into the cove further north of where the trail  reaches the beach and you can see the waves that draw the crazy bunch of hearty Oregon surfers on other days.  But on this day we had the place to ourselves.  The only car in any of the trail head parking lots, the only people on this day willing to go out into the pouring rain, where we began to drip as much as the moss covered trees around us.

We only took a few pictures because of the heaviness of the rain and the non-waterproofness of our camera.  The rain was driving in so hard when we were at the cove there was no good way to take a picture.   Even later when the rain turned back into a heavy mist and we headed to Cannon Beach to visit the small local history museum and find some hot coffee, the camera didn’t get too much use.  What pictures I have from our hike in Oswald West State Park I will share with you here and in the next edition I’ll share about our time in Cannon Beach on the same day and how driving to see if the tide was out enough yet for a good walk can lend itself to awesome surprises…

Me posing with who I fondly call "Grandpa Spruce", an enormous and ancient elder of the coastal forest.

A suspension bridge over one of the coastal creeks in Oswald West State Park

Signs of Life in a Winter Forest

Schmitz Park, January 18th, 2011

No rain yet today so took off towards Schmitz Park after lunch.  Reached the path into the park as various gulls, crows, Northern Flickers and a Stellar’s Jay cried their alarm – a raucous cacophony of sound.  Never spotted the source of their unrest, a hidden bird of prey, most likely.  With a high pitched flight note a Brown Creeper flew onto the truck of a tree I was standing near.  I watched it creep its way up the mossy trunk and branches before it let out the high note again and flew to another tree.  Black-capped chickadees dangled from the bare branches of maples, feeding on tiny insects hidden from my sight.  A Ruby-crowned Kinglet chattered as it hopped among the briers and shrubs, a brief flash of its bright red crown patch before moving deeper into the undergrowth.  Male Anna’s Hummingbirds singing here and there.  A single Winter Wren scolds me as I walk past it.  Hopping from branch to branch close to the ground, with each harsh scolding note, its tale pops up, as if it has to pump the sound of itself.  It quiets down as I move on.  Not too much further and I stop and squat down, amazed to see small nettle plants beginning to emerge already.

A little further on I see the bright green tips of the new growth of Skunk Cabbage popping out of the mud.  In another spot the Spring Beauty has begun to grow.

Signs of the Pileated Woodpecker’s recent activity are everywhere.  Yet the bird is still no where to be seen.

I check the Salmon Berry branches for signs of buds starting, but don’t see any yet.  Not much new growth or buds forming on any of the trees or shrubs, but the mosses and ferns glow with their vibrant greens.

I hear the first few raindrops hitting the plants around me before I feel them.  Rain or not I can’t bring myself to leave the forest yet.  Tucking my camera into my jacket,  I take a deep breath of the cool fresh air and head off to walk another loop of trails.  A Northern Flicker calls from some where high in the tree canopy.  The chattering of Golden-crowned Kinglets and Chestnut-backed Chickadees come from the deep green of the Cedars and Douglas Firs, unseen but envisioned easily as they move in the dense foliage looking for little bits of food.  They add their music to that of the flowing creek that cuts through the park and I notice a few Oxalis near the steps before I cross the creek on large rock stepping stones.

I make my way through another muddy section of trail as the rain begins to come down more steadily.  It’s coming down hard as I leave the park, the cold drops hitting my nose and cheeks, one drop finds a way onto the back of my neck and a shiver runs through me.  There may be plenty of signs of life in the forest, even a few signs of the coming spring, but it is most definitely still winter.  That thought is emphasized by the rain turning to ice pellets before I reach the warmth of my home once more.

Winter Birds

Sanderlings, Constellation Park

I look forward to the late fall and winter for all the birds that come back to stay the winter with us.  They’re the species that you grow used to, fond of and can often have the most time enjoying, because, unlike the spring and summer migrants they aren’t hiding away while nesting.  Winter birds seem to be out in the open more while they busily go about eating.  The woodland birds are more visible as they move about in mixed flocks among leafless deciduous trees and the deep green conifers.  The water birds seem to hang out closer to land and I can observe them closely with my bare eyes and binoculars and not spend time wishing I had a scope.  The shore birds return to the beaches, running up and down the sand and rocks, chattering in their cute little languages and taking off in tight flight formations along the water and back tot he shore again.

Winter birds aren’t bothered by winter weather so I am just as likely to see them on a sunny day or on the days when it is windy and rainy and I know I need to brave the weather to get much needed time outside.  They keep me company either way and they inspire me to bundle up and get myself outside even when I really just want to curl up under piles of blankets and kitties.  Winter Birds are good for me.

Merlin at Lincoln Park

Northern Pintail, male, Washington Park Arboretum

American Mallards, Washington Park Arboretum

American Mallard, female, Washington Park Arboretum

American Mallard, male, Washington Park Arboretum

Sanderlings, Constellation Park

Sanderlings Constellation Park

Double-crested Cormorants, Cormorant Cove

Double-crested Cormorant with fish off Alki Beach

American Wigeons and American Coots Sammamish Lake State Park

Gull sp. at Lincoln Park. This gull has me stumped. In nearly every way it looks like a Glaucous-Winged Gull, except for the bit of black on its bill. A hybrid of some sorts, I just don't know.

Black Turnstones , Alki Beach

Black Turnstones in flight, Alki Beach

Harlequin Duck, male, Constellation Park

Barrow's Goldeneyes, males and females, Constellation Park

Rain-drenched Reflections

Last night the rain came down so hard that it was almost as loud on the roof of the house upstairs as it is on a tent.  Amazing downpour.  And I mourned for my tomatoes, still green and so little chance of those beautiful fruits ripening and then I remembered that rain brings mushrooms and a good rain this time of year brings a wonderful and earlier flush of delicious treasures I get to search out.  So as I mourn, I rejoice.

I look forward to walking through the moist lush forests as the season changes from summer to fall.  The dripping of water from the trees, the falling of bright colored leaves.  The glistening of water droplets on the needles of the evergreens. The glow of the golden leaves of the maples and alders like a sun themselves in the forest.  The smell of moist crisp air and then the distinct smell of mushrooms popping up out of the forest floor.  Sometimes faint, sometimes pungent.  The strong scent of a lobster mushroom can stop me as I walk along the trail and I start sniffing about, searching for where that treasure might be hidden.  All the shapes that start to emmerge again in the trees as the leaves fall.  Bare branches against the darker green backdrop of the firs and ceders.  The mixed flocks of birds flitting together from branch to branch.  Watching 20 or more bushtits descend on the ocean spray seed heads, joining the chickaddes that dangle upside down from the tips of the branches, gobbling up seeds and insects while cheerily chatting away.   And I chat right back, talking to my cheery featherd friends, basket on my arm, full of fall fungal treasures and an autumn leaf or two or three….