Wild Edible Berries of the Pacific Northwest

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the raspberries were ripe and shared a link showing how to make easy raspberry freezer jam.  While walking through the Loganberry Lane Off Leash Dog Area in south Everett with my dogs this morning,  I noticed that many of the local wild, native berries are ripening, too.  Salmonberries, trailing blackberries, red huckleberries and blackcap raspberries all there ready for picking.  Visit this link for more information about identifying and eating wild berries of the Pacific Northwest.
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Raspberries are here!

As everyone in the Pacific Northwest knows, it has been a longer than normal wait for those yummy raspberries this year.  The colder than normal weather really slowed them down, but they are finally here.  Raspberry freezer jam is the favorite around my house, so I had to get busy and make some.  If you've never made raspberry freezer jam, you might want to give it a try.  There is no cooking so freezer jam retains more Vitamin C and fresh taste of the berries and it couldn't be easier!  Here is a link to easy step by step instructions for making easy no-cook Raspberry Freezer Jam!

Banding Hummingbirds in Edmonds, WA

Hummingbirds are delightful, tiny, winged jewels that most of us in the Pacific Northwest enjoy seeing. I was fortunate to be among the 20-30 people who attended the annual hummingbird banding workshop given by Dan Harville in Edmonds on July 19th.

Dan has been banding hummingbirds for over eleven years and as you might expect, was a wealth of information about these beautiful little birds.  We learned that bird banders are unpaid volunteers who add to our knowledge by capturing, taking measurements and recording information about the birds and placing a band on their legs. 

The birds are sometimes captured months or years later by others and through the band number the data is sent back to the bander and a database adding to our knowledge of bird migration routes, life expectancy and by comparing it to data from past years how the species are changing.  

A most interesting evening!

Measuring the beak length of a young Anna's Hummingbird