FrancesWood

This morning I found a white eagle feather on my back lawn. Two eagles regularly sit and call back and forth in our fir trees and I've found blackish brown eagle feathers before, but this one is ragged, well-used and all white.

Is that good luck? Will something special happen today? Will I get arrested for having an eagle feather?

"Toot, toot, toot." The sound of my own horn. Warning: this post includes blatant bragging.

Frances Wood has earned honors in the Society of Professional Journalism’s 2009 NW Excellence in Journalism Contest. Wood was awarded first place for her column “Whidbey Birding.”
Her columns featuring birds and bird watching appear monthly in the South Whidbey Record. Her articles strive to help readers connect more closely to nature through the joys of bird watching. Wood has been writing for the South Whidbey Record for over a decade. The winning entries were selected from columns published in 2009.
This year the 2009 NW Excellence in Journalism Contest brought in 2,500 entries from Region 10, including entries from Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. The entries were submitted online for the first time this year, and judged online as well by journalists around the country. It was a big effort, but well worth it to be able to honor the very best in journalist in our corner of the world.”
Wood’s winning entries may be found at the South Whidbey Record’s web sight. www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/swr/

See and touch artistic nests

May is the prime month of birds nesting. The May show at the Brackenwood Gallery (located in Langley on Whidbey Island)  is called "Oh, Spring!" It features nest sculptures by Sharon Spencer and flower and landscape paintings by Nola Allen. Check it out.

May Birding Column

Hope you'll read my May birding column in the South Whidbey Record. Here is the link:

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/swr/lifestyle/93682544.html

Gojo Tenjinsha, Tokyo, Japan. We walked through this Shinto shrine in Ueno Park. It was the most elaborate entrance to a Shinto shrine that we saw. A few plum trees were in bloom.

On our first morning in Tokyo we left our hotel in Asakusa and took the subway to Ueno Ponds. Saw lots of familiar ducks and these gulls resting quietly on the pilings. We identified them as black-headed gulls, larus ridibundus, in their winter plumage. I, too, was in my winter plumage and should have been wearing a hat.

Life has been busy including a trip to Japan. More about that later. Right now I want to share my recent column on birdwatching in the South Whidbey Record.

Here is the link http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/swr/lifestyle/90853744.html

Today's quiz: Who was the first woman to scale Mt. Rainier?
The answer is in my feature article in the Washington State Museum's on line magazine, ColumbiaKids.

http://columbia.washingtonhistory.org/kids/fall2009/notoriousnwesterners.aspx

On Sunday 2/28 Phyllis Kind and I birded Point Wilson at Fort Worden, Pt Townsend on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. We viewed hundreds of wintering seabirds including a pair of Marbled Murlettes and a fairly rare Yellow-billed Loon.

I turned off the Olympics long enough to write my column for the South Whidbey Record. Check it out. http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/swr/lifestyle/85120522.html