Given similar climatalogical challenges, my Minnesota and Tucson birding friends
have evolved a similar response.

Check out

http://www.birdchick.com/wp/category/birds-and-beers/

and Tucson's Audubon's Birds and Beers 3rd Thursday of every month.

Richard Carlson
Full-time Birder, Biker and Rotarian
Part-time Economist
Tucson, AZ, Lake Tahoe, CA, & Kirkland, WA
rccarl at pacbell.net
Tucson 520-760-4935
Tahoe 530-581-0624
Kirkland 425-828-3819
Cell 650-280-2965




________________________________
From: jeff gibson <gibsondesign at msn.com>
To: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tue, September 6, 2011 2:48:01 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Anchor Pub Crawl


Early Sunday , as I was engaged in my morning meditation of cleaning the Anchor
Pub, I noticed a quick moving bug crawling across the 104 year old fir floor. It
turned out to be a large Rove Beetle, about an inch long. While not exactly a
rare bug it's the first one I've seen at the Anchor, particularly inside the
place. They are interesting for a beetle as they have very reduced elytra (the
hard shell wing covers that most beetle's have) and a long segmented abdomen.

This one ran straight for the nearest hiding spot - a large dust bunny that I'd
just swept into a pile. There it got tangled in the hairy pile and couldn't get
out, so I rescued it - picking it up with a paper towel, as I knew them to have
gnarly mandibles and the ability to spray a nasty chemical spray out their tail
end. After dumping it outside it assumed it's defensive posture - head and and
sharp abdomen arched up, like a little black scorpion sort of. Quite a fearsome
looking thing, albeit small. Later (on BugGuide.net) I found out that the family
that this beetle belongs to is the largest family of any animal- upwards of
55,000 species (due to recent reclassification). Add another species to the 'Bar
Tab' - my name for my list of creatures here at the bar.

We had music later in the evening and I had the door guy job so I saw a few more
interesting things. Around 7pm the air in front of the place was briefly full of
flycatching Starlings - for the annual September "Termite Fly" probably: I'd
seen termites flying around all day. The Starlings circled and glided around
very much as Cedar Waxwings do in their flycatching mode. In a few minutes they
were gone.

Later still, after darkness fell I was still at the door listening to the dulcet
tones of Peppino D'Augustino on our stage a world class acoustic guitarist who
somehow wound up at the Anchor. Quite a contrast to an upcoming Metal show next
week, the poster for which was delivered earlier in the day by a pleasant young
fellow. The poster features a movie still from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' - the
shot where the mean Nazi's head is melting into red goo as he gets hit with the
Power of God emanating from the Ark of the Covenant. How wonderful ! Yup, some
real face melting music coming up!

As I stood at the door listening to Peppino, the sky was alive with Caspian
Terns cruising beneath the stars making their usual screeching, but also many
young birds up there in the dark calling with their sweet whistle - the first
ones I've noticed calling here. The screeching adult terns were quite a contrast
to the mellow music inside, but the young terns call blended nicely. I was
thinking that the adult Caspian's could give those Metalheads a run for their
money - can you imagine 3 or four Caspian Terns on an indoor stage, with drum
backup ? Your ears might just fall off.

Jeff Gibson
The Anchor Pub
1001 Hewitt Ave.
Everett Wa