Park Cau­tions Vis­i­tors Against Aggres­sive Attack­ing Owls San Juan Island Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Park is cau­tion­ing peo­ple recre­at­ing in the park about recent and aggres­sive behav­ior from owls that has result­ed in at least four known attacks on vis­i­tors in the park. These encoun­ters have been report­ed on Eng­lish Camp’s Bell Point Loop Trail in recent weeks. Park  Con­tin­ue Reading

Almost sev­en years ago, Friends of the San Juans began work­ing with Wash­ing­ton State Parks on a salmon recov­ery project on Sucia Island. After a lot of research, sur­veys, designs, engi­neer­ing, and per­mit­ting, the on-the-ground work to restore habi­tat has come to fruition. Locat­ed along a major migra­to­ry path­way for juve­nile Chi­nook salmon, Sucia’s marine  Con­tin­ue Reading

More good news from J‑Pod… The Cen­ter for Whale Research con­firms that anoth­er calf has been born into the South­ern Res­i­dent killer whale com­mu­ni­ty, and the moth­er is J41. CWR will eager­ly await the whales’ return to eval­u­ate the calf’s con­di­tion and hope­ful­ly deter­mine its sex. J41’s new calf is the sec­ond birth in J  Con­tin­ue Reading

Here’s some hap­py news from the Cen­ter for Whale Research… Updat­ing our recent announce­ment con­cern­ing J35’s new calf, J57: we can con­firm that it is male (see top pho­to­graph). This feisty young boy was seen last evening, Sep­tem­ber 22, near Point Roberts, Wash­ing­ton. He was pho­tographed rolling, spy­hop­ping, and swim­ming along­side his moth­er, who was  Con­tin­ue Reading

San Juan Island Library announces that renowned region­al author Clare Hodg­son Meek­er will host a Zoom talk on Fri­day, Octo­ber 2, at 7:00 p.m. Meeker’s lat­est book, Grow­ing Up Goril­la: How a Zoo Baby Brought Her Fam­i­ly Togeth­er, is a 2020 Wash­ing­ton State Book Award Final­ist for Young Read­ers. Meek­er will dis­cuss writ­ing Grow­ing Up  Con­tin­ue Reading

Resource Allo­ca­tion to Growth and Struc­ture: The Ener­getic Cost of Mus­sel Byssal Thread Attach­ment, by Mol­ly Roberts Dr. Mol­ly Roberts com­plet­ed her PhD with Dr. Emi­ly Car­ring­ton in 2019 in the Biol­o­gy Depart­ment at UW. Her research involved both exper­i­men­tal work at FHL and field­work at Penn Cove Shell­fish in Coupeville, WA. Pri­or to her  Con­tin­ue Reading

FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Inte­ri­or Alas­ka is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Steve Ulvi… (Author’s note: This camp­fire sto­ry is most­ly fic­tion in terms of char­ac­ters and events. His­toric, eco­log­i­cal and polit­i­cal themes will always be sculpt­ed fac­tu­al­ly. The won­ders of the sub­arc­tic nat­ur­al world are as I under­stand them and  Con­tin­ue Reading

San Juan Coun­ty Mas­ter Gar­den­ers wel­come keynote speak­er Robin Haglund to the Annu­al Gar­den­ing Work­shop Series. Robin’s pre­sen­ta­tion, Grow­ing a Year-Round Hum­ming­bird Habi­tat Gar­den, guides you through craft­ing and main­tain­ing a gor­geous year-round gar­den that pro­vides habi­tat for our res­i­dent hum­ming­birds. You will learn the vital ele­ments need­ed for food and nest­ing, while enjoy­ing the  Con­tin­ue Reading