6/8 Gulls, trading trees for pollution, TM pipe, California Cr, bioblitz, Pt Roberts, crows

Tony Angell, on a Feeding Frenzy of Gulls
Tony Angell, reading from his book Puget Sound Through an Artist's Eye: "It was early summer and I looked across the open sea. Its surface gently heaved, suggesting the presence of some great being stirring within. Using binoculars I followed hurried lines of cormorants, guillemots, scoters, and rhinoceros auklets. On a mission, their flight was straight ahead and sure. In the bay below, a gang of a hundred gulls swirled and surged and plunged into a herring ball near the surface. In all likelihood the fish had been herded there by diving auklets and murres or even a school of salmon. I could hear the frenzy in their calls as they competed for the food – and so, apparently, could other gulls, who detoured from their flight-line to join the melee. These cries rang like dinner bells to other gulls." (BirdNote)

Big polluters are spending billions on controversial projects that protect forests and let them keep polluting 
As industrial polluters try to erase their greenhouse gas emissions, they plan to spend billions of dollars in the coming years on preserving and restoring forests to cancel out pollution they can’t directly eliminate with electric vehicles, energy efficiency improvements and wind and solar power projects. Benjamin Romano reports. (Seattle Times)

COVID-19 precautions at Trans Mountain construction sites could boost Kamloops hospitality sector
Work has begun on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in B.C.'s Interior, bringing dozens of people into the region. Workers are being put up in local hotels, with new policies and procedures in place to ensure COVID-19 doesn't spread in the city. Trans Mountain president and CEO Ian Anderson anticipates up to 600 workers in Kamloops during the height of construction this summer, which will include as many people as possible from Kamloops, as well as from other parts of the province. (CBC)

One of ‘most beautiful coastal areas’ in fast-growing part of Whatcom to be protected
A $915,000 federal grant will be used to help buy and protect nearly 55 acres of coastal wetland habitat, and the fish and wildlife that depend on it, along California Creek. Whatcom Land Trust is partnering with the state Department of Ecology on the conservation project. The grant will go toward the total cost of $1.3 million to buy four pieces of land, including 6,500 feet of shoreline, along the creek that is a major tributary to Drayton Harbor near Blaine, according to the Whatcom Land Trust. Kie Relyea reports. (Bellingham Herald)

Conservationists in Langley, B.C., adopt new methods to catalogue biodiversity
Conservationists in Langley are hoping to catalogue hundreds of living things over a two-week period despite not being able to deploy volunteers en masse to the area's green spaces due to the pandemic...The activity, known as a bioblitz, is popular around the world as a way to create databases of biodiversity and monitor change...The Yorkson society reached out to other watershed societies and environmental stewardship groups around Langley Township to run the bioblitz over a two-week period where volunteers use online tools to record and catalogue plants and animals. Chad Pawson reports. (CBC)
way.

Point Roberts residents lobbying for exemption from closed border
Stuck with limited stock and uncertain supply chains, a number of Point Roberts residents are lobbying for border restrictions to be eased so they can travel to Bellingham to shop. At the moment, only people deemed to have essential reasons for travel are allowed across the border. “I see statements that say ‘essential reasons like getting a prescription filled or going to a doctor appointment,'” Point Roberts resident John Beals said. “The key word is ‘like.’ Beals has begun a petition asking that essential travel should include people from Point Roberts who want to travel the 40 kilometres to the Peach Arch crossing and back with zero stops along the way. Gordon McIntyre reports. (Vancouver Sun)

The Sea’s Weirdest Creatures, Now in ‘Staggering’ Detail
With a new laser-scanning tool, marine biologists are getting a fine-comb look at some of the gloopiest and most mysterious organisms in the ocean. William J. Broad reports. (NY Times)

Crows might pose a challenge or two, but their intelligence and humanlike complexity resonate with Seattle like nowhere else
...JOHN MARZLUFF IS a University of Washington professor and wildlife biologist who, in 30 years of studying birds, has become simply The Crow Guy. But even Marzluff acknowledges that he, too, was skeptical of the crow at first, and he understands why others would generally feel the same. Adam Jude writes. (Seattle Times) See also: Oh, to be a crow: smart as all get-out — and still able to get out  Adam Jude writes. (Seattle Times)



Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  225 AM PDT Mon Jun 8 2020    
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH  TUESDAY MORNING   
TODAY  W wind 5 to 15 kt becoming to 10 kt in the afternoon.  Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 7 ft at 8 seconds subsiding to  5 ft at 8 seconds in the afternoon. A slight chance of showers. 
TONIGHT  SW wind 5 to 15 kt becoming E 15 to 25 kt after  midnight. Wind waves 2 ft or less building to 2 to 4 ft after  midnight. SW swell 4 ft at 14 seconds. A chance of rain in the  evening then rain after midnight.




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