Port Townsend/Fort Warden May 6 2012
I was awoken at sunrise because I wasn't used to the bright light that lit up the inside of the tent I was sleeping in on the coast of the Straight of Juan de Fuca. I got out of bed however because of the strange bird noises that I could hear coming from just outside, along with the lapping of waves not much further off from our campsite. This bird noise was like a vibrating series of pulses or beats, but when I got outside the tent it was gone. I went to the adjacent hill and into the beginnings of the forested land next to the shore, comprised of pacific madrone as would be expected in the rain shadow of the olympic Mts, and douglas-fir and western-redcedar. On the ground were nootka roses, snowberry, elder berry, salal, salmon berry, and sword ferns. at the top of the hill, I climbed up a cedar tree in order to get a better look at the view of the sun rising above the Straight and the opposite shore. I had to climb up the south facing branches, because these were the only ones which remained alive at the base because of their access to sunlight. I also had no choice but to climb a cedar, because those trees are the ones that reliably have branches at the bottom of them, probably because they are a wet climate tree, and dont worry about fire, which is extremely rare in places where cedars are in climax. This forest was not in a climax vegetation however. I dont think it ever will be because of its proximity to the ocean, where the harsh edge effects continually recycle the life of the plants. This was very noticeable by the fact that the top of an adjacent douglas-fir snag was tangled amongst this cedar's branches about mid way up. When I had reached a suitable height, I took in the views, but I couldnt sit down safely because of the dramatic downward sweep of cedar branches. Instead I was forced to remain standing and facing trunkwards, that is until I again heard the pulsing that had woken me up from the tent. I turned around, and there was a humming bird hovering not 4ft from me, it's wings making the pulsing sound, which then seemed obvious. It didnt stay long, but it was as if it had come to investigate what I was doing up a tree, it was looking right at me. I once had a similar experience in which a crow circled a tree I was in, but this hummingbird, which was clearly a rufous hummingbird like the one on the cover of my bird guide (bright reddish orange head and upper torso and white breast), didnt seem as bothered by my presence as the crow had been. Retrospectively, the curiousity that hummingbird displayed gave me the feeling that it was the same bird had been the one to get me out of bed that morning, and that it led me from my campsite up the hill and into the tree where it showed itself again. I am unclear on whether an animals ability to insight fantasy because of its personable characteristics has a place in natural history, but similar traits were appreciated in the spotted owl, which had a unique role in the natural history of the same peninsula.
Species list:
Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)
Comments
Add a Comment