I'm not much of a lister I'm afraid, but this Winter I did come up with a great idea for a new list - The Couch List.

I've never been to a psychiatrist yet so it's not a list of questions for one of those folks. No, my couch list is a list of all the birds and animals I can see and hear from my couch. I got the idea early one gray winter dawn when, as I lay snoozing on my couch, I awoke to the sound of a big flock of Snow Geese flying over my house. Back in the day, experiencing Snow Geese around here required a trip to Skagit Flats! Now I don't even have to get off my Everett couch. I think that's pretty exciting.

If parked on the North end of my couch I can see my single tube bird feeder out the window, so that's cool, and in migration times I can see the trees out the window, and who might be passing by. But what really excites me the most is what I can hear; why, I don't even have to raise my head, sit up, or open my eyes. That's relaxing!

Since my couch is only a few blocks from the bluffs overlooking Puget Sound I can easily hear the Sea Lions with their incredibly loud barking. This summer I was serenaded by Collared Doves every morning. One cold morning a few years ago, a loud Racoon fight just outside the window was quite exciting.

Especially in winter, I find the couch attracts other animals. We heat our house with an oil heater, which since we feed it diesel 5 gallons at a time, frequently runs cold. I sleep on the couch a lot because I have what is often referred to as a snoring "problem" and I snooze on the couch to spare my wife noisy nights. Buried under a pile of blankets on cold mornings my body heat lures in other animals, the colder it is the more creatures show up. When really cold I often wake up with all the indoor mammals piled on top of me - a dog, and two cats. Mammals like to be warm. I imagine on very cold nights leaving the back door open and seeing what else might show up- possums, squirrels or coons maybe - if it got cold enough.

One animal I've never had on the couch is a Cougar, even though I hang out at pretty good cougar habitat ; The Anchor Pub. There I have witnessed several cougar kills at close range, protected somewhat by my age; cougars prefer younger prey, epecially succulent young Navy guys that just got back from a long deployments and have been marinating in their own hormones for awile. And hey, I'm happily married!

Jeff Gibson
on the couch
Everett Wa