Downy Woodpecker on a suet feeded | Michael Tatman | Canva

Feeding wild birds is one way to attract a variety of species to your balcony, yard, or window. If you are new to feeding birds, seed and nectar feeders are common choices, but suet feeders can be a wonderful alternative. Suet is particularly attractive to woodpeckers, bushtits, nuthatches, chickadees, jays, and starlings. In many ways, suet is less messy (and therefore attracts fewer rodents), and some models of feeders can be very easy to clean.  

So, what is suet? 

Suet is technically defined as the hard fat around the kidneys and loins in beef and mutton, but other types of beef fat, as well as vegetable fat alternatives, are commonly used and are still safe for birds. Tasty, bird-friendly morsels such as seeds, nuts, nut butter, cracked corn, corn meal, oats, dried fruit, bugs, or mealworms are then packed into the fat to create an appetizing suet “cake.” The suet cake is put into a wire cage feeder, allowing the bird to peck at a solid chunk of food.  

Red-breasted Nuthatch | Michael Tatman | Canva

What suet recipe is right for your birds? 

Whether you decide to go with a bug-filled suet cake or a peanut one will depend on what type of species you want to attract.  

Nature Shop volunteer Karen Shea tells us that, “any suet will work for chickadees and starlings, but if your goal is to attract woodpeckers and nuthatches, then a suet cake that includes peanuts is a better choice.” 

Making your own suet using plastic ice cube trays is another great option for those who want to custom mix suet treats. Try this recipe from National Audubon using a few ingredients you may already have around your house.  

What time of year should I use suet? 

Because of the high fat content of suet, many people opt to feed suet in the winter months to help wild birds get more calories and fat during the coldest months of the year. However, spring and early summer are also a good time to provide easy calories to brooding females and young nestlings. If weather conditions allow, late summer and fall suet feeders can offer extra calories to birds that are preparing for a long migration. 

With generally mild summers in the Puget Sound, we sometimes have the option of feeding suet all year long; however, suet should never be used in hot weather because the suet cake will melt, cause a mess, and increase the chance of the fat going rancid or molding. If using beef fat, temperatures over 90 degrees will cause suet to melt. Vegetable oils have lower melting points of 75-77 degrees. 

Where to put your suet feeder? 

Because of the risk of melting, suet feeders should not be placed in direct sun, but morning or partial sun can be okay. Because the fat can go rancid or moldy, your suet cake should be replaced and thrown away after about a week (or a little longer in the winter) if birds are not eating it. As with all feeders, it may take birds some time to find your suet feeder when you put one out for the first time. 

If you make the choice to feed wild birds it also comes with the responsibility to keep them safe while visiting your yard or balcony. One common hazard is cats, so be sure to keep your cat indoor or in a catio if you are attracting birds through bird seed. Feeder placement is another important safety measure. Place your suet or seed feeder less than 3 feet or more than 30 feet from any reflective windows to prevent fatal bird-window collisions. Thirty feet is a safe distance away and under 3 feet doesn’t allow the bird to build up enough speed for a fatality.

Start Suet Feeding With Products From The Nature Shop

Explore other articles in this issue of EarthCare Northwest

The Collision Buffet: How Bird-window Collisions Supplement the Diets of Urban Scavengers 

Bird fatalities, while tragic, play an important and unnoticed role in our urban food chain, especially for scavengers like crows, gulls, and rats. Birds Connect Seattle is studying carcass persistence, or how long a dead bird remains before it is carried away by scavengers, as part of the Seattle Bird Collision Monitoring Project. 

Read more.

Barred Owl Diet: Insights from Pellet Analysis in Seattle 

University of Washington student researcher Olivia Cavalluzzi spent her summer analyzing nearly 600 Barred Owl pellets to uncover interesting insights into their diet, behavior, and role within the Seattle-area food chain. 

Read more.

Sink Your Beak into This  

Over millions of years, birds have adapted their anatomy to their unique ecological niche, in part due to the food sources available to them. In this article, we explore the specialized beaks of several local bird species and how that helps them snag their favorite snacks. 

Read more. 

Blooma Tree Care arborists Ricky, Zane, Troy and Randy on snag trimming day | Claire Catania

A large Douglas Fir tree once stood in front of the Birds Connect Seattle Nature Shop. Many years ago, the top half of the tree broke off in a wind storm, and what remained (the standing dead snag) was intentionally left behind in the front yard to become a home for wildlife.

Over the years, the snag has supported all kinds of birds, invertebrates, mammals, fungi, and plant species, who have used it for shelter, food, and nesting. Even when a tree is no longer living, it can provide numerous benefits to wildlife, and actually attract a different set of species than a living tree would. For example, cavity-dwelling birds nest and take shelter in snags, like ours. Different insect and fungi are attracted to decaying wood, which can fuel the foodchain of other species.

Nature Shop customers regularly get to witness a squirrel scampering up the trunk, or hear the knock knock of a Pileated Woodpecker searching for bugs under the bark. This beloved snag, as well as the variety of native plants in the yard, contribute to the Birds Connect Seattle yard being designated a certified Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary by Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. A plaque even hangs proudly on the lower portion of the snag, as if to welcome wildlife to come enjoy it.

In recent years, at least three species have been known to nest and raise their young in the snag including a family of Northern Flickers, and Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees.

Mick Thompson | Eastside Audubon

A long-time Birds Connect Seattle member and professional arborist, John Zehren, frequents The Nature Shop for bird seed and each time he passes by the snag he performs a wiggle test, gently pushing on the tree to gage its stability. About 10 years ago, John first noticed a specific fungi called Phaeolus schweinitzii growing on the snag. This specific fungi is associated with root and stem decay. John knew that over time as the snag decayed it would take less and less force to wiggle it, and at some point the snag would need to be trimmed down from its original height, so he continued to monitor it on his regular visits to The Nature Shop. Earlier this fall, he alerted the Birds Connect Seattle staff that with the tree’s current state of decay and movement, it should be trimmed down to a lower height.

As dead trees continue to age, the wood deteriorates as part of the natural decay and succession process, often with the help of fungi. This deterioration also happens in the root system, which can cause the tree to loosen in the soil over time. It is recommended you inspect your snag from time to time to evaluate its safety as it decays.

After meeting with a consulting arborist, it was determined the best course of action would be to remove the top portion of the snag to bring it down to about 12 feet, while still retaining habitat value, as well as making it safe. The arborist team from Blooma Tree Experts made a plant to give the snag the “Bart Simpson” treatment, leaving a jagged edge at the top (just like Bart‘s iconic hair style) and distressing the bark in places so the snag would look more natural, and less like a telephone pole.

The “new” snag after trimming the top for safety | Claire Catania

After the work was completed, the wood cuttings were scattered around other parts of the yard so they can continue to be an ecological benefit to wildlife. One Nature Shop volunteer was curious about the age of the tree, so used a section removed from the snage to count 91 rings! That was 91 years the Douglas Fir proudly stood (living) along 35th Ave, and it is our hope it will continue to provide numerous benefits to wildlife for another 91 years as a snag.

By Van Bobbitt, Garden Committee 

Gov. Jay Inslee proclaimed April, 2023, as Native Plant Appreciation Month. Each year, the Washington Native Plant Society sponsors Native Plant Appreciation Month to highlight the importance of native plants and healthy native plant ecosystems. 

Here are some reasons you should care about native plants: 

• • Native plant ecosystems protect our watersheds by recharging aquifers, modulating stream flows, filtering water, and reducing erosion and flooding. 
  • Healthy and diverse native plant ecosystems sequester carbon and provide environmental resilience in the face of a changing climate. 
  • Preserving native plant ecosystems is critical for supporting wildlife, such as birds, fish, and pollinating insects. 

“Planting for Tomorrow” is the theme of this year’s Native Plant Appreciation Month. This can apply to large ecological restoration projects, landscaping a yard with native plants, or even growing a few Oregon-grape plants in containers to provide nectar for hummingbirds. 

Oregon Grape flowering by Olga Murina, Canva

Habitat loss is a major threat to biodiversity. Entomologist Doug Tallamy, author of the award-winning book “Bringing Nature Home”, says “My central message is that unless we restore native plants to our suburban ecosystems, the future of biodiversity in the United States is dim.” In another one of Dr. Tallamy’s books, “Nature’s Best Hope”, he provides a blueprint for people to turn their outdoor spaces into conservation corridors that provide wildlife habitat. 

The Seattle Audubon garden can serve as a model for creating bird habitat. It was designed with three major goals: 

1. Create habitat for wildlife, especially birds.
2. Screen the building from the street.
3. Provide a demonstration garden to educate the public about gardening with native plants to create habitat for birds and other wildlife.

If you want to enhance your garden’s habitat value, what lessons can the garden offer? 

Emphasize Layers of Vegetation

“They (birds) need food, shelter and water, but they also need a layered landscape from big trees all the way down to ground cover,” according to Keith Geller, who led the volunteer team that created the garden. Different birds favor different heights of trees and shrubs. More on this in Seattle Audubon‘s “Gardening for Life” guide found HERE.

Russell Link, author of “Landscaping for Wildlife”, says: “…concentrate on providing structure in the landscape from the ground covers to small shrubs to larger shrubs to mid-sized trees to larger trees. Birds and other wildlife are oftentimes attracted to structure as much as they are the plants themselves or the flowers they provide.” The full interview with Russell Link on BirdNote can be found HERE. 

Emphasize Native Plants 

The designers of the garden “consciously built the garden around native plants, but it isn’t a strict regime.” Native plants evolved here and are adapted to our climate, and native wildlife evolved alongside our native plants. But non-native plants may provide habitat value as well. It would be a shame to remove a large, well-established non-native tree that already provides shelter and food for birds. You don’t need to be a purist. 

For a quick guide to which native plants will provide habitat value for specific bird species, see the handout “Pacific Northwest Plants and the Birds that Use Them”.

The Seattle Audubon garden uses layers of vegetation and native plants including trees, shrubs, and ground cover, to build habitat for wildlife.

Value Dead or Dying Trees 

A dead snag of a large Douglas-fir tree has been standing in front of the Seattle Audubon Nature Shop for years, and that is intentional. Wildlife biologist Russell Link said in a BirdNote interview, “Interestingly, when people ask me what are my top ten plants, I oftentimes will include dead or dying trees … because they’re so important to a wide variety of birds.” There is an excellent article by Stuart Niven on the habitat-value of dead and dying trees in the Spring 2022 edition of Earth Care Northwest, published by Seattle Audubon. 

For more details on how to create a habitat garden, Russell Link’s book, “Landscaping for Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest”, is a good place to start. A number of gardening and habitat enhancement books are sold at The Nature Shop. 

Dead snag standing at The Nature Shop to attract wildlife, including woodpeckers by Carol Roll

2023 Native Plant Appreciation Month Events

Shop for Wildlife-supporting Native Plants 

The Capitol Hill EcoDistrict and Seattle Audubon are teaming up to celebrate Earth Month this April. Join us on the Upper Meadow at Cal Anderson Park on April 16, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a plant sale and seed exchange. Shop for wildlife-supporting native plants from local farming collective, bring your favorite seeds to swap, or take some to sow from our free seed inventory.

Click HERE for more information. 

Native Plant & Habitat Garden Tour 

Come tour our garden to learn about native plants and how they can enhance habitat for birds and wildlife. This event will be led by our Garden Committee members Shannon Bailey and Van Bobbitt on Friday, April 21, 2023, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Seattle Audubon Nature Shop & Garden

Register using this LINK 

Webinars from the Washington Native Plant Society 

• “The Legacy of Dr. Art Kruckeberg” by Dr. Richard Olmstead. March 31, 7:00 p.m.
• “Gardening with Native Plants for the Future” by Marcia Rivers Smith. April 6, 7:00 p.m.
• “Gardening Under Native Trees” by Christina Pfeiffer. April 12, 7:00 p.m.
• “The Heritage Garden Program” by Heather Wendt, Kelsey Kelmel, Dinah Rouleau, Elizabeth Jackson, and Wendy Mee. April 18, 7:00 p.m. 
• “Underground Allies: Tiny Yet Mighty” by Dr. David R. Montgomery & Anne Biklé. April 24, 7:00 p.m. 
• “Resilient Gardens for Uncertain Futures” by Clay Antieau. Apr 27, 7:00 p.m. 

To register, go to https://www.wnps.org/wnps-annual-events/npam 

Celebrating Birds: An Interactive Field Guide Featuring Art from Wingspan

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Bryony Angell is a devoted birder and writer, focusing her stories on women in the birding world, who has been recognized in regional and national publications. An advocate herself, Angell has served on the Seattle Audubon board, contributed to our blogs, and volunteered with us for 10 years as a community scientist.

Angell recently wrote about the female artists behind the art in the Wingspan board game and their new book Celebrating Birds: An Interactive Field Guide Featuring Art from Wingspan. In her recent blogpost, she said:

“Artists and Wingspan board game illustrators Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez have released a companion book Celebrating Birds, a stand alone field guide featuring their artwork from the North America edition of the game.

“Rojas and Martinez are significant as female artist contributors to the birding field guide world, long dominated by male artists, and the story behind the book’s publication involves a team of women from the designer of the Wingspan game to written content creators to publisher, in addition to the artists.”

Both from Medellin, Colombia, Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez are lifelong friends who started partnering in 2017 on wildlife art for home decoration.

Rojas, who currently lives in Tampa, Florida, is a self-taught illustrator. She specializes in graphite and colored pencil drawings that are highly detailed and hyper realistic. In 2016 Rojas devoted her life to the creation of her art. Ana Maria Martinez is currently based in Medellin, Colombia. In addition to her artistic output, Martinez currently works as an adjunct professor and researcher at the University of Antioquia, the same institution where she earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Read more about Bryony and discover her blog.

Read Bryony’s full book review.

Get your own copy of Celebrating Birds: An Interactive Field Guide Featuring Art from Wingspan from the Nature Shop.

Related Articles

Birds Connect Seattle Nature Shop staff look through the book selection in the library.

A birders’ library, home to more than 1,500 books about birds, is located in the basement of the Birds Connect Seattle Nature Shop. With a few exceptions for reference books, members can borrow these books to plan for an upcoming trip, expand their identification and bird behavior knowledge, or to explore other Washington nature, such as trees, plants, and wildlife.  Within the next couple of months, the library catalog will be accessible online, an exciting evolution thanks to our volunteers who have been hard at work to implement the new online system.  

Looking for ways to open the library to greater use by members, volunteers researched tools that would allow the library catalog to be available on the web. Ultimately, they selected Open-Source Automated Library System, or OPALS. Members will be able to search and locate books by subject, authors, and title, as well as a few other categories.

Working closely with staff, several volunteers are organizing and entering all the books into the online catalog. Soon, you’ll be able to search the catalog from the main Birds Connect Seattle. Members are of course welcome to visit the library in person to look through the selection of books. 

A Little History 

Over the years, volunteers have developed and maintained the library, from the days of a hand-written card catalog. The scope of the library collection, at one time proposed to be much broader, now focuses on books for birders. It is not a full-blown nature library, but the collection runs deep in birding topics.  

Books for the library have been donated over time by members and friends of Birds Connect Seattle “thinning” out their own libraries. This practice has brought in a wide range of birding resources, including many published in other countries and a few in other languages. However, it also has meant that there’s a lot of duplication of well-known books and older editions.

While the organization continues to accept book donations, those which are duplicates or outside the library scope of birding are sold or donated elsewhere by the volunteers. You can find many such donated books for sale in the Nature Shop, while others are sold to local bookstores. In some cases, books are donated to other libraries, such as the Elisabeth C. Miller Library at the Center for Urban Horticulture, the Friends of the Seattle Public Library, and the Ann Lennartz Memorial Library at Seward Park Audubon Center. 

What’s in the Collection? 

More than half of the books in the library cover how to identify and where to find birds throughout the world, ranging from well known as well as eccentric field guides to “finding” guides. These include some books that are very hard to find. For example, we have “The Birds of Colombia”, “Birds of the High Andes”, and “Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands”. You can also find “The Birds of Hustai National Park,” which is in Mongolia, and is a book probably not found in any other library in Seattle. In a nod to how birders travel, separate sets of plates are available for some of the very large field guides, allowing one to have their bird ID illustrations on hand without the added weight of a bulky book.

Another third of the books cover ornithology and bird families, and focus on the biology and lives of birds. These range from books focused on specific species such as Peregrine Falcons to pictorial and technical works on nests, eggs, and the rearing of young. Suited to our Pacific Northwest conditions, we have many books about wading birds, shorebirds, and seabirds in particular. 

You can find many photographic books of birds; answer questions about bird names; and delve into other aspects of nature of local interest or by local leaders and teachers:  Arthur Lee Jacobson’s “Trees of Seattle,” Zella Schultz’s seabird observations, and a biography of organizer Hazel Wolf. The library includes many popular narratives like Kenn Kaufmann’s “Kingbird Highway,” and Pete Dunne’s “The Feather Quest,” “Bird Brother” by Rodney Stotts, and books by local authors Lyanda Lynn Haupt and Connie Sidles. 

When Can I Use the Library? 

Members are welcome to visit the library during open hours of the Nature Shop, and volunteers or staff can assist you with your check out. Visit the online catalog to peruse our expansive selection of books online, before coming to the Nature Shop.

About Mike Seamans and Shirli Axelrod 

Mike and Shirli have been members for more than 40 years, and have been volunteering for the Birds Connect Seattle library for the last four. They enjoy expanding their bird knowledge, and planning for their next birding vacation utilizing the books they find in the library while volunteering. Several other volunteers, currently and in the past, have made significant contributions to bringing the library to its present state.

Birds Connect Seattle would like to acknowledge our current library volunteers: Betsy Donahue, Renée Remlinger, Shirli Axelrod, and Mike Seamans, who have spent countless hours organizing and preparing our library for the future online catalog.

Explore other articles in this issue of EarthCare Northwest

From Young Birder, to Collision Monitor, to Lifelong Advocate 

Spotlight on teen member Yoon Lee 

Yoon isn’t sure where to credit her fascination with birds – Wild Kratts television show, an Anna’s Hummingbird on her school campus, or a global pandemic. Whatever her inspiration, it is here to stay, and she is busy creating a better future for birds in our community through her activism.

Five Destinations in North America for Bird-related Travel 

Recommendations from our members 

Just as birds are in the midst of their spring migration, you may also be feeling the pull to plan your next vacation. Pack your field guide and binoculars and check out one of these great birding destinations in North America to plan your next trip around. 

Make the Most of Nesting Season  

by Dan McDougall-Treacy 

What a joy it can be to observe the nesting and fledging of birds from home. Depending on the species you might be trying to attract, providing nesting materials and nest boxes, and modifying your own garden practices, can set birds up for greater success.  

Photo of Molly Hashimoto with Japanese Maples by Paul Kasprzyk.

Article by Caryn Bell-Schutzler. 

In the introduction to her stunning new book, Trees of the West (follow up to Birds of the West: An Artist’s Guide), artist, author, and educator Molly Hashimoto tells us how trees beckon us into the wilderness.

Recently, I met up with Molly after she returned from teaching a watercolor class in Yosemite. She graciously joined me for a walk at Magnuson Park, (sporting her new Yosemite baseball cap) not far from my Wedgwood neighborhood. With her gorgeous book of trees coming out soon, I wanted birders and nature lovers alike to meet the woman behind the art. Perfect timing.

Birding in Magnuson

From the boat launch, we began our leisurely stroll along the park’s tree-lined paths. Stopping at a grove of poplars, their leaves quaking in the cool breeze, I asked Molly if she had any favorite bird sightings at Magnuson.

She told me about seeing a pair of fledgling Long-eared Owlets but when she returned the next day hoping to see them again, they were gone. She said she also once saw a group of Canada Geese with a lone Snow Goose and wondered how this oddball had come to join the group. Molly tells me if you visit a place frequently, each time it’s different. Sage advice.

As we approached Magnuson’s soccer fields, edged with tall light poles, we heard a high-pitched chirping. Light poles and cell towers (“species” not included in Molly’s book) have become popular nesting locales for some raptors. Atop of one of the poles—their adopted “tree” of choice—was a large nest. Looking closer with binoculars, we spotted two Osprey chicks nearly ready to fledge. An adult circled with a stick clutched in its talons. When he landed, I told Molly about a favorite New Yorker cartoon showing a bird placing a branch in the nest. His mate cautions, “You’re not going to put that there, are you?” Molly is reticent to chatter but has a wry sense of humor that seeps through when you least expect it. Homebody nesters alike, we shared a good chuckle.

Long-eared Owl | Larry Hubbell

From the iconic Douglas fir and western red cedar to deciduous alders and maples, trees are a crucial link in flyways, providing rest and refueling areas during migration between a bird’s breeding and wintering grounds. They create green oases dotted along the way as migrants pass through our urban neighborhoods and cities.

When Molly takes “exercise walks” at Magnuson, she’ll often walk there from home. Like me, she rarely feels the urge to seek out birds far from her own nest. She says if they are there, where she is, when she is, that’s what it’s all about for her. Molly said she’s liked birds since childhood but didn’t begin to make art about them until about ten years ago. Wherever she goes, she takes photos as references for the block prints and watercolors she creates at home in her studio.

Rufous Hummingbird art by Molly Hashimoto

In her garden, Molly enjoys seeing juncos, towhees, and both Anna’s and Rufous Hummingbirds. I like to think the rufous visiting her yard is the same one I see in mine when they migrate through.

As we walked the densely planted maze of well-treed pathways, I was glad Molly, a soft-spoken sentinel—tall and tree-like herself—was my guide since I’m sure I would have gotten lost. We came to a large pond where yellow buds of skunk cabbage were coming into bloom, its large leaves swaying in the breeze like elephant ears. A heron landed on a snag. Downed trees lay gnawed to a pencil point, evidence of a beaver lodge. Sparrows darted in and out of brushy thickets. The dense understory, when devoid of foliage in winter, allows greater visibility of grebes, ducks, and other waterfowl.

Mountain Bluebird art by Molly Hashimoto

My path had actually first crossed with Molly’s several years ago after a neighbor wrote me a note in a card with an image of a Mountain Bluebird designed by Molly. I’ve long admired the block print/etching art form and asked where she’d found it. When she told me it was from the Seattle Audubon Nature Shop, I high-tailed it up there and bought several and asked about the designer. They told me Molly was a local artist and happened to be offering a class at the Burke Museum. Excited, I signed right up.

Always apprehensive about doing any visual art, once in Molly’s class, I felt at ease with her encouraging, easygoing demeanor. I love how she introduces other art forms in her classes, using poetry, music, and fine art books, to inspire her students. (Listening to Mozart while carving a print is so relaxing.) Molly is extremely supportive with a pragmatic, down-to-earth manner.

She says, “Art brings you out of yourself so that you meet nature halfway.”

Once, when I was struggling with a print, Molly told me about wabi sabi, the Japanese philosophy of appreciating beauty in nature that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.” I so treasure this idea, believing anything in nature—especially those things with so called imperfections—are indeed beautiful. I learned from Molly—and nature—that it’s OK to create something less than perfect. In my own art and writing, unwittingly wabi sabi, I strive to understand and accept the inevitable flaws of a creative life. Whether in one of Molly’s art classes or perusing her strikingly illustrated books for inspiration, I embrace how the intertwining of minds and mediums work in concert to help us see things in unknown, yet-to-be-revealed ways.

Though we may not have seen many birds on our walk, I was delighted just spending time with Molly. I now view and listen (yes, listen) to trees—and birds—differently, as they summon me to explore the wild, wherever I might find it.

Beyond their ecological value, trees give us shade, a sturdy branch for a swing, a place to study whilst leaning against a moss-laden, gnarly trunk. And they provide sustenance for a myriad of creatures (including us) from sap, cones, seeds, and fruit, as well as sites for our feathered friends to perch and nest. Molly’s appreciation of trees, reflected in her art, is apparent. I love how she interprets the bark of different species by using strong verticals and horizontals. Especially when a bird or animal is in the print, it evokes a sense being lost in a fairytale wood.

As we look up into the trees, straining our necks trying to spot that elusive bird or simply sit beneath them for nature’s solace—their welcoming arms indeed are beckoning us to “meet nature halfway.”

Certainly, both Molly and her art meet nature more than halfway.

Author’s Note: Sadly, it could not go without mentioning that while writing this piece the iconic Sequoias of the grand Mariposa Grove in Yosemite became engulfed in a wildfire from the ever-present, ruinous consequences of climate change. As of August 1, 2022, the area/acreage lost was equal to the square miles the size of Seattle.

About Molly Hashimoto

Seattle artist and writer Molly Hashimoto has been sketching and painting in the outdoors for more than 20 years, and has filled over 40 sketchbooks with landscapes, vignettes, studies of flora and fauna and natural history notes, much of the work created while visiting some of the West’s most iconic parks and monuments. 

You can learn more about Molly on her website: https://www.mollyhashimoto.com/

Save the Date: Book Signing Event

On Thursday, November 10, Molly will be at The Nature Shop from 5:00–6:00 p.m. to sign copies of her newest book, Trees of the West. Mark your calendar for this special evening event!

The Nature Shop sells a number of Molly’s books, calendars, and greeting cards. You can pick up purchases at The Nature Shop or have items shipped.

Cedar Waxwing / Barbara Houston

Varied Thrush /  Debra Regula / Great Backyard Bird Count