For every thing a season

I received e-mail from a friend noting that I hadn’t written a new blog entry in a while. It’s a busy time, but a couple of interesting happenstances come to the fore.

First of all, with the re-emergence of sun and warmth, activity has freshened in Birch Bay. Denizens of the Bay are out pressure-washing moss off everything, repainting, repairing, replanting. A lot of cabin re-modeling is evident, new decks being built on which to sit out and take in the sun. The speed limit has dropped to summer speed of 20 mph, to make it safer for people out walking along the streets or crossing to the beach, or bicycling, or rollerblading. We see more little kids out walking with parents and grandparents. Bright orange buoys are dotting the beach getting ready for dinghies and sailboats.

Birch Bay has suffered some real estate woes, but hasn’t been impacted quite as badly as other areas of the country. Plenty of Canadians are bringing their strong dollars down to our little resort community, which has helped stabilize our real estate market. Summer is a good time of the year for selling little beach getaways and the like. This summer is no exception, and I’m happily engaged in writing up offers.

But, all work and no play makes for dull times, doncha know.

I’ve also gotten involved in the Volunteer Beach Naturalists program sponsored by Re-Source in Bellingham, WA. Doug Stark is the program coordinator and, in conjunction with the State Parks and various experts, trains local citizens to act as informal naturalists on beaches in Whatcom County. We’re learning how to identify creatures, critters, and seaweed and eelgrass from Larrabee to the south of us, to Semiahmoo just to the north. We trainees then volunteer our time to go out on the State Park beaches on selected weekends to educate beach visitors or help identify things for them. It’s been fascinating to learn about how lively our beaches are; more about this later!

Here are a couple of photos from class. Doug is digging up a gaper, or a horse clam, to show how far down they burrow in the sand. This other shot is of one of the participants holding a dungeness crab molt. The crab has totally withdrawn from and left behind its old shell, which you see here. Too cool!

Just one last comment. Each of us in the class was asked to pick a critter to teach the others in class about. I happened to pick up the info card for the hermit crab. I had to laugh. How appropriate for a Realtor to get the hermit crab, which molts and is always in search of the perfect home. In captivity, when new shells are introduced, most hermit crabs will check out the new shells and change their old shell for a new one within 24-48 hours.

That’s my kinda crab!