Barbara B. Harrell

Update. A few species have been shaded/competed out, but our back slope #restoration now has 73 species, including a new Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia) and a new patch of California oatgrass (Danthonia californica) (native in #PacificNorthwest, not just California). #habitat 1) Jun 2025 2) Apr 2026

‘Tis the fungal season. Samish Crest two days ago.

Squirrels and rabbits love the dogwood berries. We know about the rabbit penchant for them because I go out with a pole pruner and cut most of the berries off, so squirrels won't break the branches trying to get berries near the tips. (It has happened.)

I’m old enough to remember when Ted Cruz accurately called Donald Trump a pathological liar and the worst narcissist anyone had ever seen

the sum total of Sam Alito’s jurisprudence on voting adds up to “You have the right to vote for a Republican and if you aren’t likely to vote for a Republican, then Republicans are allowed to disenfranchise you.”

From @timmiller.bsky.social : “We are imprisoning Maryam, Eissa, and their teenage son not because they are a threat to national security—but because of something a family member did before any of them were born.” 😕🇺🇸 @marcorubio

mackenzie scott really seems like the only billionaire to figure out that you can be a literal hero to millions with a relative pittance

More pileateds today, viewed through window with Acopian #birdsavers. I think this baby was trying to tell me something, lol, before Mama called her over to our cherry snag. #birds #PNW #Bellingham #woodpeckers

US media: Why in the world are people voting for democratic socialists? Financial Times: “US corporate profits have hit a record high while workers’ slice of the pie has sunk to historic lows.”

That suet is hanging under our deck, positioned where squirrels can't reach it. Frequent visitors include bushtits, chickadees, nuthatches, spotted towhees, western tanagers, Bewick's wrens, juncoes, downy & hairy woodpeckers, northern flickers. Pileateds just the past two days. #Bellingham #birds

here is the thing. if you tell me that you believe that race is a biological category and that it is a guide to the objective superiority and inferiority of groups of people, i am not calling you a racist to *insult* you, i am calling you a racist because it best describes your beliefs.

Not to brag but www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?t...

Even in the Trump era it somehow seems unreal that this dimwitted crackpot is the top public health official for a nation of 350 million people.

Bombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:

It's absolutely insane we've somehow let the Covid recriminations debate become like "why didn't we reopen in person schools before there was a vaccine" and not "why did none of the trump guys go to jail for stealing PPE from New York hospitals in March 2020"

Bordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.

The same is true about the “stolen” election

A mother gave the government her fingerprints, tax records, and DNA to get her 6-year-old daughter back. She did everything officials asked. ICE used that information to find and arrest her. A child welfare system became a deportation tool. open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

We really should have gone to greater lengths to be loudly disgusted by anyone who acted like getting a shot or wearing a mask to prevent the spread of a pandemic virus was worse than being conscripted into the First World War

Rand Paul--who doesn't believe in evolution--holding a hearing of Dr. Fauci--a retired, life-long public servant-- while we are *actively* in the midst of SEVERAL disease outbreaks due to unnecessary public health cuts and corporate lobbying shows exactly how unserious Republicans are.

a statement from Fauci's lawyers says Rand Paul has "an intense & seemingly pathological course of retribution, revenge, & obsession with Dr. Fauci ... The accusations that Chairman Paul continues to propagate are false and disgraceful, and we will examine all options to hold him accountable."

In old-time anthropology, this used to be called "culture shock." I experienced it, returning to California (Leisure World, of all places) from 5 months in an impoverished Taiwan coal-mining village.

uh...yes?

This is crazy and wrong. Darkness is important to the health of many species, including ours. Do not allow this, people! #ALAN #darksky @danidarkskies.bsky.social @darkskyintl.bsky.social

No.

Newsday.com/matt

More from Samish Hill today. Just me and @steveharrell.bsky.social. We saw two other humans and one smiling dog during 3 miles on trail. #Bellingham #PNW #nativeplants

Just a little hike up Samish Hill, one of our favorites here in #Bellingham.

ICE is surging in the Seattle area. (Map shows activity in the last week) Do you have your whistle with you?

Summer color for bloomscrollers 🌺 Nodding onion, Cascade penstemon, deer-fenced cape fuchsia and crocosmia—all of intense interest to our local rufous and Anna's hummingbirds. English lavender occupies bees and other pollinators, seems to please the neighbors ;-) #PNW #Bellingham #garden #habitat

I assume in keeping with their methods, before Trump puts on the "largest fireworks display in history" (or whatever he's hyping) he has fired the fire department.

Me for the last two decades: That dead tree sure would be a great place to see a hawk perched. Me tonight: See, I knew it! #birds #nature #photography #Wisconsin

Some hungry Northern flicker chicks and their hard-working dad. Colorado. 🪶

This real life “make way for ducklings” happened today in Newport right in front of me

So does the Supreme Court.

💯% this

Elon Musk’s DOGE cut the federal government’s screwworm monitoring program, which cost $15 million. Now, the Trump administration is preparing to spend $1 billion to combat the screwworm outbreak. Never forget how destructive and downright stupid DOGE was.

I don't know exactly what these Pacific Great Blue Heron nestlings were doing but I thought it was interesting...?! #birds #photography #ECK @everyheron.bsky.social

The hottest new lifestyle trend is cooking and eating the food you have at home. It’s called fridgemaxxing

You used to be able to google the time of the sunset, and Google would give you the exact time right on top every single time. Thankfully, with artificial intelligence, you can now ask Google what time the sun will set and it will conveniently tell you "I don't know."

BREAKING: we are NOT accepting media reports as proof that the $1.8B slush fund & "settlements" associated with it are dead That's why we @democracydefendersfund.org have just filed a new lawsuit to make sure this ENDS --on behalf of former J6 prosecutors with Platkin LLP, WLG & Heaphy Smith