The following post was written on April 20 in honor of Earth Day.  -fg

The earth smiles with her flowers! (photo by Rick Clark)

The earth smiles with her flowers! (photo by Rick Clark)

In honor of Earth Day, we held our annual Earth Day Yoga Retreat this past weekend.  We were fortunate enough to have our friend, Brent Matsuda, as our resident biologist.  He drives over from Vancover, B.C. every year for our Earth Day Yoga Retreat event and shares his wonderful knowledge of wildlife with us.

Brent compiled this list of birds we saw (or heard, such as our elusive pheasant) over the Earth Day 2014 weekend.  The pristine environment here provides a wealth of wildlife!

Bald Eagle1

Here's a juvenile eagle right on the beach! (photo by Rick Clark)

Here’s a juvenile eagle right on the beach! (photo by Rick Clark)

Here is the same eagle flying away.

Here is the same eagle flying away. (photo by Rick Clark)

Bufflehead1

Canada Goose1

Caspian Tern1

Chestnut-backed Chickadee2

Common Loon1

Cormorant (species unknown)1

Dunlin1

Eurasian Collared-Dove2

Godwit (species to be confirmed)3

Rick's sharp photo of two godwits. (You've got to love the names for birds!)

Rick’s sharp photo of two godwits  (You’ve got to love the names for birds!)

Here they are again, feeding away.

Here they are again, feeding away. (Rick’s photo)

Golden-crowned Sparrow1,2

Great Blue Heron1

Greater Scaup1

Gull (species to be confirmed)1,3

Horned Grebe1

Killdeer1

Mallard1

Marbled Murrelet1

Northwestern Crow1,2,3

Orange-crowned Warbler2

Peregrine Falcon1

Pied-billed Grebe1

Pigeon Guillemot1

Ring-necked Pheasant1

Song Sparrow1

Surf Scoter1

Yellow-rumped Warbler2

 

1Damon/Protection Point  (stormy day)

2Seen/heard around Little Renaissance

3Pacific Ocean Beach  (sunny day)

What I emphasize for the Earth Day Retreat is the theme of Evolution.  The evolution of each individual person represents a lifelong process of developing character, traits, kindness, mindfulness,  fine tuning, and becoming the best we can be.  The yoga sessions over this past weekend included poses imitating roundness of earth, as well as the half moon and crescent moon, trees, reptiles, birds, mammals, and finally humans such as Warriors and Archers.

Walking on reflective sand, Ocean Shores, WA

Walking on reflective sand, Ocean Shores, WA (Brent’s photo)

Horsing around on a huge log.

Horsing around on a huge log. (self timed photo)

The log was slick, so our line of Warriors were too busy balancing to perfect the pose!

Fun: The log was slick, so our line of Warriors was too busy balancing to perfect the pose!

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