WinTer 2004

Treasure  Chest 
 

Shifting sands delayed this issue of the Treasure Chest.  It's no longer being electronically sent as an "attachment" by email (for computer virus protection), for example; but mostly this Chest needed extra digging out after losing ground over the holidays.  For example, fitting here on the first page is the last page's post-script in advance. Quiet thanks to Linda in our TICC office along with thanks to our neighbors, too, for their help in many ways (inc. great survey responses) each time we write and get this out.  For the work and what you read, the final responsibility lands here where you know your thoughts are most welcome along with your support, you material, offer to help, patience, or not minding - the Treasure Chest, M.Oberle

****

We here include many who came initially because of a trip or a move related to someone's military assignment.  The lucky among us got to stay, while some continued their careers onto other bases before returning. We might bump into a Treasure neighbor at the Commissary, we know that there are neighbors here with kids following their family footsteps into the military, and realize that the military in Bremerton employs a huge number of people from all around the area. Concluding that Treasure island families, friends and neighbors care very deeply about our troops now serving abroad, this is a special Valentine to them and us.

With more than hearts supporting our troops, let's promise them our focus and feet too working as well toward the return of peace, for a present.

Our neighbor Mark Oberle has been a serious ornithology student for decades, still gets up early and listens to nature in the country.  Keeping binoculars ready and a notepad nearby during his getaway times over the recent years, this is what he's seen so far, or expected to* from somewhere on Treasure; and he's organized these100 Birds to look at on Treasure Island for us the way the bird field guides do.

LOONS & GREBES
Pacific Loon, Common Loon, Red-throated Loon,*
Red-necked Grebe, Horned
Grebe, Eared Grebe, Western Grebe

CORMORANTS
Double-crested Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant

HERONS
Great Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron

DUCKS & GEESE
Mallard, Canada Goose, Greater Scaup, Surf Scoter,
Black Scoter,* Common
Goldeneye

HAWKS, FALCONS & EAGLES
Osprey, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Merlin, Cooper's
Hawk,*
Sharp-shinned Hawk

PLOVER, SANDPIPERS
Killdeer, Spotted Sandpiper, Sanderling*

GULLS & TERNS
Mew Gull, Glaudous-winged Gull, Ring-billed Gull,
Western Gull,* Caspian
Tern

MURRES & PUFFINS
Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot

PIGEONS
Rock Pigeon, Band-tailed Pigeon

NIGHTJARS
Common Nighthawk

HUMMINGBIRDS
Rufous Hummingbird

SWIFTS
Vaux's Swift

KINGFISHERS
Belted Kingfisher

WOODPECKERS
Re-breasted Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy
Woodpecker, Northern
Flicker, Pileated Woodpecker*

OWLS
Great Horned Owl*

FLYCATCHRS
Western Wood Pewee, Olive-sided Flycatcher,
Pacific-slope Flycatcher

SWALLOWS
Purple Martin, Tree Swallow,* Violet-green Swallow,
Northern
Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow

KINGLETS, WAXWING, WREN
Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Cedar
Waxwing, Winter Wren

THRUSHES
American Robin, Varied Thrush, Swainson's Thrush,
Hermit Thrush,*
Gray-cheeked Thrush*

CHICKADEES & TITS
Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Bushtit

NUTHATCHES & CREEPER
Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch,* Brown
Creeper

CROWS & JAYS
Steller's Jay
Northwestern Crow

STARLING
European Starling

VIREOS, WOOD WARBLERS
Hutton's Vireo,* Casin's Vireo,* Wilson's Warbler,*
Townsend's Warbler,
Black-throated Gray Warbler,* Yellow-rumped Warbler,
Orange-crowned
Warbler, Nashville Warbler*

TANAGERS
Western Tanager

SPARROWS & FINCHES
Spotted Towhee, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow,* Lincoln's
Sparrow*
White-crowned Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Black-headed
Grosbeak, Purple
Finch,* House Finch, Red Crossbill, Pine Siskin,
American Goldfinch

BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES
Red-winged Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird,*
Brown-headed Bowbird,
Bullock's Oriole*

OLD WORLD SPARROWS
House Sparrow

* - probable species for sighting on Treasure

Just a reminder here for sighting Treasure too, on the webcam at Fair Harbor via http://fairharbormarina.us/x60.xml.

Email readers, on this Chest's print page 4 is a star map entitled "View of the night sky for March 1, 2004 at 9pm." Take a look because our country setting offers fewer lights and a greater chance to see stars which many elsewhere can't see.  Link to http://SkyandTelescope.com/  to print this neat star map and take it outside for your outside viewing. Notice the very high and fast-moving satellites, too (which are found on the NASA gov't web site).

For anyone who missed the news, by a wide margin in November, our neighbor Pam Berger WON her bid for a seat on the Grapeview School Board.  Congratulations for this Pam!  Also, congrats to you and your family for the safe and happy arrival of your new baby granddaughter. Please remember that these successes were supposed to bring only part-time demands upon you.

Wings up.

Volunteers all, we work as we can to keep up our lovely island and commitment to the community. Board members volunteer openly and regularly and donate many hours to overseeing the Club's business. To them, to Rod Wilkinson our webmaster, to those who have joined the work parties, always leash their dogs, walk the island with pruning clippers and use them, and to the rest who also walk and do for us: please know that your work is noticed and greatly appreciated.

An important added thanks goes to our neighbor Dick Benson who graded the snow here for us during the recent bad weather.  He deserves at least the hand he gave all of us.

Margaret Chessum passed away on December 2nd in Oakhurst, California.

Born in Seattle in 1918, Margaret is survived by her husband George, daughter Jackie, sons Bill, Jim and Jon, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. George and Margaret married in 1938. They raised their children in California where Margaret was a speech therapist for for the Monterey County School District. They purchased their island property in 1957 and spent many of their retirement years living in their home here.

Margaret belonged to the local Stitchery Group and was active in the Sarah Eckert Guild. She generously gave her time to the Club, serving as our Secretary/Treasurer from 1978 to 1990.

George will be staying in Oakhurst (with daughter Jackie) until early summer. When he returns, tentative plans are to hold a memorial service locally for Margaret.

To those who knew Leah Rindall, she passed away recently. With her family as one of the first owners on Treasure, she had 40 year old roots here before she moved away in the 1990's. Old friends and neighbors remember.

Thanks to the thoughtful walkers who keep the quiet on those weekend mornings for sleeping in.

Another group working hard on our behalf is the Allyn Community Association.  They have been devoting a lot of time and effort to protect our area's water quality, and so also deserve our recognition and thanks.

Email readers, Tide Tables take up most of this page.

Link direct to Allyn:
http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/tideshow.cgi?site=Allyn%2C+Washington

Web link: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/

SEATTLE - BREMERTON FERRY, Crossing time approximately 60 minutes.

DAILY FROM SEATLE, departures begin at 6:00am, 7:35, 8:45, 10:15, 11:25am, then 12:50pm, 3:00, 4:20, 5:30, 6:45, 7:50, 9:05, and 10:30pm with the last overnight ferry at 12:50am.

DAILY LEAVE BREMERTON at 4:50am (except Sunday), 6:20, 7:20, 9:00, 10:15, and 11:30am, and 12:35pm, 3:00, 4:15, 5:30, 6:40, 7:55, 9:00 and the last at 11:40pm.

Not a fish story -

We had a visitor here recently who was evicted after a month's vacation by a most interesting country remedy.  When the Fish and Wildlife folks said they wouldn't come to remove a wild, uninjured deer (because it's wild, uninjured, and living freely in the same country as we), this one needed a different escort. Likely the firearms and shooting regulations on Stretch and Treasure Islands have encouraged the deer to roam more freely; and so now they'll trot across our bridge at any hour. However this docile, wide-eyed, little interloper arrived here (tracks were first noticed in mid-December), he enjoyed the quiet digs he found between a neighbor's guest house and tool shed where he relaxed and mugged for the photo op by day, while, a-hem, blighting the landscape's welcoming juniper and cedar shrubbery by night. There's bulb damage, too; but the nearby resident raccoons also like these treats and fairness counts.

Ultimately, evicting this little guy was done simply and quickly by use of an aggressive deodorant bar soap, though likely any strong smell would have caught his attention. This time called for scattering Irish Spring soap shavings around the area and using them too to fill mesh (stockings work great) containers for hanging around his environment - including off his favorite nibbles. Not the spring salad he'd come to enjoy, and especially when the winter moisture likely lifted and spread the soap, our visitor took the cue from his newly perfumed food and vanished.

Remembering to collect up the soap remains, reflections on this brought to mind those times when any of us suddenly fled some rude and uncontrollable surprise - racing forward while looking backward to bolt an escape from a "What was that!" behind us.  So, not a fish story (yet), it's only imagining a confused deer being chased by bubbles across our bridge to his home and family, and his thinking about his dignity and how he'll explain the smell....

For those interested in attending our February board meeting, it was moved to the LAST Saturday in February, the 28th, at 9am at Dave Hare's house.

Otherwise the island's quiet these days.  Thanks to those who got their annual checks in early to the TICC for our annual dues.  Other than the coming Valentine's, St. Patrick's and Easter holidays already on our calendars, only the weekly Monday (other than "holiday" Mondays) breakfasts at the Grapeview fire house need mention.  The next Chest should go out mid-April.

Below in code is a famous person's quote as a cipher for a Treasure Chest puzzle.  It's a cryptogram which some enjoy doing by figuring out the needed letter substitutions.  Only the date and punctuation are given; it's up to you who rise to such challenges to work the gray cells to decode the memorable words and person's name who said them.  Hints are to copy the cipher onto scratch paper with an eraser handy, and that this type of puzzle delivers a second opportunity to pause and accept the challenge by the revealed message itself.

Honorable mention to you who crack this first.

"FWFSZ  HVO  UIBU  JT  NBEF,
 FWFSZ  XBSTIJQ  MBVODIFE,
 FWFSZ  SPDLFU GJSFE,
 TJHOJGJFT  JO  UIF  GJOBM  TFOTF  B UIFGU GSPN  UIPTF
 XIP
 IVOHFS  BOE  BSF  OPU  GFE,  BOE  UIFGU  XIP  BOE
DPME  BOE  BSF  OPU  DMPUIFE."

QSFTJEFOU EXJHIU E. FJTFOIPXFS   - April 16, 1953

 

Treasure Chest
c/o Treasure Island Country Club
P.O. Box 44
Grapeview, WA 98546

 

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