Last Sunday evening I was inspecting a beer at the Anchor Pub with some customers, when my wife calmly called out from the upper level " there's a bird in the building". As Director of Non Human Wildlife here at the Anchor, I bounded up the stairs, expecting to find something like a House Sparrow flitting around the cieling. So I was somewhat surprised to find a large immature Glaucous-winged Gull calmly standing on the floor about 8 ft inside our upper level doors - the Anchor is built on a hill.
"Hey, what are you doing in here?" I asked. Rather than replying, the gull just turned around, and slowly walked back out the door. Following it outside as it walked away, I observed that the bird seemed a bit out of it. " Hey are you drunk? Have you been bar-hopping?". Still no response. The gull continued slowly down the sidewalk - in a straight line by the way, so I supposed it was sober. I was about it just let it wander off into it's fate, when I spotted a domestic cat about a half block away. It had spotted the gull. That just didn't seem right, so I walked behind the gull as it walked up a sidewalk leading to the nearby railroad bridge, where it was cornered and I easily picked it up.
Back in the bar we found a big cardboard box and I put the gull in it. The gull, while full grown, seemed a bit freshly minted, and showed no attempts to fly. The next morning I hauled it out to Sarvey Wildlife Center in Arlington, where they were gonna check it out.
About a week before, while driving down the Lowell-Shohomish River road, I spotted a roadkill Long-tailed Weasel on the verge, so I stopped and picked it up. A fresh kill, limp as a noodle. Heading into town, my first stop was the Anchor so I showed it off a bit before bagging it and sticking it in the freezer. I've been lucky over the years seeing living specimens of this beautiful creature, from sea level to the subalpine zone. Most of my sightings have been right around Everett and Snohomish over the last few years. This specimen is 10 inches long plus a six inch long tail. Mid-brown above, and tan below - with a black-tipped tail. Mouth full of very sharp teeth.
While there's one less weasel in the world, there's also one less tick. Yes the weasel had a large tick on it's back, which failing to jump ship in time, wound up in the Anchor freezer as well. Imagine being a tick out there in the grass and shrubbery waiting to fall on some warm-blooded prey, and it turns out your host is a long-tailed weasel. What an exciting ride that must have been.
Last evening I was sitting out front the Anchor when the Caspian Terns nesting atop the big warehouse two blocks away all took off in a roar. This happens on a regular basis these days. While always loud, when a thousand or so terns all erupt en masse the sound is somewhat reminiscent of a full football stadium of folks erupting over a home touchdown. Quite easily heard right thru the brick Anchor building between me and the commotion to the North.
A few minutes later I heard a very loud screeching Caspian coming my way, and it passed low right overhead- absolutely glued to the tail of a Peregrine Falcon. It soon backed off and the falcon continued South.
Jeff GibsonThe Anchor Pub1101 Hewitt AveEverett Wa"where beer is nature too"