Great New Tracking Books

It's really cool to hold a book in your hand and see your friend's name as the author! Today Dave Moskowitz, my co-worker and tracking instructor brought in the first copy of his soon-to-be-released book about tracking in the Pacific northwest. See his website here - you can preorder an autographed copy by clicking on the link you will find there.
Dave's a great tracking teacher, and his photos and track drawings are fabulous...If you have any intrest in wildlife, this book is one you will want to own. I came in early today to get lots of work done...guess how that's working out!

Another good tracking book that I just recieved from Amazon.com is "Practical Tracking" by Louis Liebenberg, Mark Elbroch, and Adriaan Louw. I had an opportunity a couple of years ago to spend a day trailing with Adriaan, who is a superb tracker from Africa. Liebenberg is the guy who started the CyberTracker Conservation evaluations (also in Africa) and Elbroch has written some of the classic tracking field guides. It's a fun book with both African and North American species. It also tells you how to stay out of trouble with the animals you are tracking.

I'm really excited about both these books, and they make me want to leave early and go to the park to track something!

Washington Weather is a Lot Like Missouri Weather

I woke up the sound of hail hitting my window this morning. It hailed hard, coming down sideways, for about 8 minutes. My landlord's grandchildren had put up a tent in front of the garage a couple of nights ago...I don't know if any of them had been inside when the hail started. The weight of the ice pellets collapsed one side of it! The street was covered in white and the cars passing by seemed to be sliding a bit...
By the time I was dressed and ready to leave for work, the hail had vanished. Tonight we have a chance of the first snow of the winter here in the valley...and we thought Spring was here. The cherry trees have been beautiful and the entire valley seems to be decorated in white and pink blossoms. I saw a hummingbird on Tuesday evening.

I thought I'd left the wild weather behind when I left Missouri. The rain comes often, but it's typically gentle, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard thunder in the 4 years or so I've been here. I haven't been reduced to begging for a basement to hide in...tornadoes are really rare in Washington, and then usually they occur on the east side of the mountains. The big (hip deep!) snow of last winter only lasted a short while...And the summers don't have the awful humidity I hated back in the midwest.

Still, weather is always changing, hard to predict, and this close to the mountains anything can happen...I wonder if I'll get to go snowtracking in the park this weekend?