Our capacity to be surprised

I saw my first varied thrush years ago when I ventured from Indiana to spend a summer working in Mt. Rainier National Park. I've associated this bird and its haunting song with remote, mossy, primitive places ever since. 

But I just saw a varied thrush in my backyard. In Shoreline. The robins didn't care for him and gave him a hard time. But for a little while, I had a varied thrush in my backyard. And I expanded my impression of backyard bird-dom from crows, robins, chickadees, juncoes, flickers and the occasional hummingbird to include a varied thrush.

Nature is never static. In the city, that sometimes means dealing with fallen branches, mossy driveways or flooding resulting from massive amounts of impervious surfaces. But sometimes it means seeing baby birds in a nest, or a opossum's eyes shining back in the dark, or a violet blooming where we didn't plant one, or a crow hopping across a street at a crosswalk. Sometimes we encourage these surprises by leaving a dead snag standing in our yard, or by weeding. Sometimes we encourage surprises just by being ready to stop what we're doing and look a little more closely. I hope I never grow so preoccupied that I lose my capacity to be surprised by nature's fresh views right in the backyard that I think I know so well.

Are you missing 21,600 gallons of rainwater?

Look on the bright side of this dark weather. If you haven’t gotten around to observing how water flows on your property, and if you haven't noticed whether your yard soaks up or spurns falling rain, you still have an opportunity to check it out.

Now’s the time to recharge our groundwater so that the earth can do its slow-release thing throughout the (presumably) dry summer months. Groundwater keeps creeks flowing long after rain stops flowing. Dependable stream flow is important to tiny creatures that live in the water and larger wildlife that also rely on creeks. We interrupt this flow when we cover up most of the ground with impervious rooftops, roads and parking lots, and send rain far away in storm drains without it ever getting a taste of our native soil.

Consider removing some of the impervious surfaces on your property. Can you replace them with permeable pavement? Aim your downspouts toward the ground and not onto one of those impervious surfaces. Or set up a rain barrel to catch the water before it flows away. Did you know that a 1,000-square-foot roof can collect around 600 gallons for every inch of rain that lands on it? 

Creek Peek for Kids

Seattle receives about 36 inches of precipitation in a year. Do you think it would take more than one rain barrel to collect the rain from your roof? Let’s do the math! To learn how many gallons a 1,000-square-foot Seattle roof would collect in one year, multiply 600 gallons by 36 inches:

600 gallons x 36 inches = 21,600 gallons/year

Wow! Most of that water used to soak into soil and recharge the groundwater.

Is your home larger or smaller than 1,000 square feet? To find out, multiply your home’s length and width, plus a little extra for your eaves.