Good idea Connie . Here's my story of place and memory - although the memory has fur rather than feathers.

Back in the seventies my 'fill' was 'Lake Louise Pond' as I called it. Technically its Lake Louise Natural Resources Conservation Area - a state DNR natural reserve near the west shore of Lake Whatcom in Whatcom Co.

It's a beautiful 137 acre patch of high quality old second growth forest with a key feature being a large beaver pond down in a mini valley between beds of Chuckanut sandstone.


I have hundreds of fond memories of the place, but my favorite was seeing Water Shrews (Sorex palustris) on several occasions. For those that don't know, the Water Shrew is our largest Shrew - at a big 6 inches long overall. In terms of mammals I suppose it would be be metabolic equivalent of a hummingbird.

Lake Louise pond is what I call an 'old growth pond' - very good water quality, very diverse biology. There are many standing cedar snags and numerous floating logs crossing the pond. One very quiet overcast morning I was sitting still for quite a while, hoping to see one of the resident beavers when I noticed a movement out on a floating log - a Water Shrew ! which I'd read about but never seen. Very striking with dark gray back and bright white belly - in fact the white carries along all under its tail too.

I've seen some zippy mammals but the water shrew takes the cake. Running up one log , down another , and amazingly running on the water! All this at high speed. Then it would dive down deep into the pond - rapidly swimming around surrounded by an air bubble and looking like fast moving mercury. Then without a stitch jump up on another log, run across the water to the next log, dive, and so on. Apparently the Water Shrew has hairs under its feet that traps air, allowing it to perform its water walking - a fact I read about later. At the time I was just amazed. The only time it stopped was when it snagged some small bug or something and snarfed it down. Which did'nt take long.

I suppose this whole encounter lasted about a short minute - but it seemed much longer. I still can picture it all these decades later. I was lucky enough to see the shrew there a second time - no less exciting.

Jeff Gibson, Everett Wa.