I was hiking along the Pipeline trail at Lord Hill Park in Snohomish County
in the middle of the afternoon and there were more warbler songs than I
could track. Definitely lots of yellow rumped, several black throated grays
and at least one Wilson's. I walked a short distance into the grassy side
of the trail to try and get a look at a calling Barred Owl and spooked no
less than 6 Townsend's vole youngsters who scattered in all directions but
then stopped and waited hoping I would go away I suppose. Now I knew what
the owl was doing there. As I got to the ferns at the edge of the woods, a
bobcat bounced out of the shadows and rather than run into the protected
dark forest it bounced along the grassy edge then crossed over to the trail
and went bounding down the trail out of view. There appears to be a general
explosion of Townsend's voles here as I disturbed more of them a bit further
down the trail.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
Snohomish County, WA