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PODCAST

Street Smart Naturalist

David B. Williams

A free newsletter oriented toward building stronger connections to place through stories of human and natural history in the Pacific Northwest streetsmartnaturalist.substack.com

society & culture personal journals

All Episodes

8:09

Dinosaurs Among Us

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/04/23

Birds are dinosaurs. “This is one of the greatest achievements in the history of paleontology,” writes Steve Brusatte, in his splendid new book, The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present. Tracing the evolution of the idea of the bird-dinosaur connection, as well as the actual evolution of birds, Brusatte reveals a complex, layered story that justifies his statement. But I have to disagree slightly with him. Our understanding that birds are dinosaurs is not just a

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8:37

Salmon, the Locks, and the Ship Canal

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/04/16

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of launching my newest book, Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal: A History and Guide. Written with my friend and Executive Director of HistoryLink.org, Jennifer Ott, the book tells the stories of one of the most pivotal landscape changes in Seattle history. It is published by the University of Washington Press and is an edited and updated version of our previous book Waterway: The Story of Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal, which came out in 2017, to honor the centennial

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6:48

Ya Old Coot

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/04/09

Do you know who produces super cute babies? Many animals, of course, but I was completely surprised to learn how über darling coot babies are. Unlike their parents, feathered darkly in gray and black with a white bill, the young sport a plumage of exuberant color. Fluffy black down accented with cadmium yellow highlights covers the back. Collaring the face are orange and flame red feathers. Topping the body is pinkish bald pate and red bill. I had the good fortune to learn this when I saw baby

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7:37

The Geology of Whales

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/04/02

Marjorie and I had the opportunity to see a whale again (see Whale Tales for our previous whaling experience) the other day. We weren’t on a boat. In fact, we, weren’t near any water; the closest salt water was the Sea of Cortez, 200 miles west. We were amidst the stark landforms and plants of the Sonoran Desert, and the closest fresh water was our water bottle, which we relied on to combat the stifling heat. (As they say in the desert, it’s a dry heat, but 95 degrees is still way hot and means that

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7:57

Woody Woodpecker...Not!

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/03/26

My guess is that many urban dwellers, particularly in Seattle, have heard the sounds of Northern Flickers. With a rapid, rhythmic banging, the birds pound all sorts of surfaces to produce what one ornithologist described as the sound of a miniature pneumatic drill. In my neighborhood, I have seen flickers drilling trees, utility poles, and everyone’s favorite, some sort of metal surface, which produces a resonant and astoundingly loud sound that can be heard deep inside our house.Studies have found

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8:02

The Windshield Phenomenon

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/03/19

Recently, I experienced a natural history phenomenon I haven’t in many years: Marjorie and I had to stop to wash the bugs off our windshield. We were in the Sonoran Desert driving east from Tucson, Arizona, on Interstate 10. About fifteen miles west of Wilcox, I heard a light thunk on the windshield, simultaneous with the appearance of the classic bug splat. Within another ten minutes, bodies peppered the glass, so many that we needed to pull over at the next gas station and clean them off.About

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6:05

A Love Letter to Libraries

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/03/12

Last week, I had the honor and pleasure to be part of the King County Library System’s annual fundraising event: Literary Lions. The theme of the event was Love Letters to libraries. If it’s okay, I’d like to share my Love Letter.To all the libraries and librarians I have known:Thanks for the memories.To Ms. Bass, who helped me find books at the Henry Branch on Capitol Hill when I was a wee lad. She lived up the block from us, and I thought it was darned cool to have such a luminary in our

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7:51

Seattle Shakes

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/03/05

Twenty five years and five days ago, the earth shook in Seattle. Although the Big One didn’t hit that day, I doubt I will forget the seconds following 10:54 a.m. on that not-so-tranquil Wednesday, February 28, 2001. I had just picked up Audubon magazine at the University Bookstore (sadly no longer in existence) when the shaking began. It started slowly and gently, as if a large truck was passing on University Way. As the seconds seemed to stretch longer and longer, however, the shaking became a

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6:49

Whale Tales

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/02/26

Recently, I had the good fortune to time travel back to when giants ruled the Earth. Well, sort of. I was down in Loreto, Mexico, and got to see the largest animals that have ever lived: blue whales. (By largest, this is in reference to heft and not to length, though there is some dispute about some fossilized beasts that may have outweighed the blue.) Like many northerners, blue whales take advantage of the calm, relatively warm, high diversity, food-abundant water to spend a couple months down in

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8:19

Creating a Book: In the Range of Fire and Ice

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/02/19

Nearly four years ago I sent a short email to my friend Emily White, Acquisitions Editor at Mountaineers Book: “Might you have 20 to 30 minutes to chat about a book idea in the next week or two?” Thus began a relationship for the book that has become In the Range of Fire and Ice: A Human and Natural History of Washington’s Cascades, which Mountaineers Books will publish in September 2026. I bring this up now because I turned in the page proofs—which is the first time an author sees a book laid out

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7:58

Status Symbols

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/02/12

On a recent trip down to Tucson, we flew on Alaska Airlines. They were promoting their new mileage plan touting the changes and upgrades and wonderful reasons why one should join. All were, of course, terribly exciting; we couldn’t wait to sign up and be part of such an exclusive and thrilling program. Who wouldn’t want to join with their fellow members of the Titanium Level, especially if you linked it with being part of the oneworld (all lower case though I am not sure why) Emerald category? Life

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9:57

Dead Trees Tell No Lies: The Electron Mudflow

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/02/05

In October of 2023, I published a newsletter about scientists using tree rings to date the Seattle Fault. I wrote: “It is a tour de force and beautiful example of science, taking a unique set of features and combining technology with old school-out-in-the-field, mucky, muddy detective work to answer an essential question.” Two members of the group, Pat Pringle and Bryan Black, along with USGS volcanologist Jim Vallance, have done it again. They have solved an essential question via dendrochronology

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6:48

Birding by Butt: The Mobile Edition

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/01/29

Last week, my wife and I and two pals of ours participated in one of the finer known BBB events, driving around the lower Stillaguamish, Skagit, and Samish river valleys looking for birds. We’ve been doing this regularly for the past half dozen plus years. It’s a pretty simple and satisfying day of sitting in a car, driving around, looking at birds, tallying up the numbers of a few choice species, grabbing a good lunch, and enjoying the beauty of the natural world and good friends. This year was no

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8:04

An Ode to My Bike

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/01/22

I hope you’ll indulge me with an off topic newsletter about an important event in my life. Thanks kindly.I recently gave away my old bike. It was the end of an era for me. For more than four decades, the lovely bike had served me well, taking me on trips ranging from short hops to the supermarket to an extended trip that covered more than 2,500 miles. I rode it at college, to many, many jobs, to do research on my books, for pleasure, for exercise. I rode it on 105°F plus days in southern Utah, on

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8:25

Grub Steaks

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/01/15

N.B. - I apologize if you get this twice. When I first sent it, Substack was having an issue and it was unclear if this newsletter was actually sent. Thanks.Walk around Seattle and you will observe what for many is a disturbing sight: green lawns with what looks like mange, or areas of shredded and denuded turf. They look as if the ground has been rototilled by an erratic, perhaps scatterbrained, and clearly inept, grounds maintenance person. The maltreated lawns are enough to drive any lawn lover

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8:25

Grub Steaks

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/01/15

Walk around Seattle and you will observe what for many is a disturbing sight: green lawns with what looks like mange, or areas of shredded and denuded turf. They look as if the ground has been rototilled by an erratic, perhaps scatterbrained, and clearly inept, grounds maintenance person. The maltreated lawns are enough to drive any lawn lover to despair….or worse, to send them on a war path to annihilate whoever had the audacity and gall to show so little respect for that landscape icon, a green

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7:17

Ten Reasons to be an Urban Naturalist

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2026/01/08

Thought I’d start my year of newsletters with a sort of summation of why I like to do what I do. And, everyone loves a list!* Birding by butt - Why get up and go out in the field when you can sit in a comfy chair in your backyard and watch? No need to stress about whether the birds you want to see will be there. Wait until they come to you. In my backyard in Seattle, while perfecting the art of BBB I have seen Mallards swimming on our flooded roof, crows harassing Barred Owls, Varied Thrushes poking

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5:11

Portrait of the Writer as a Young Historian

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2025/12/24

With the holidays upon us, I thought I’d take a quick and lighter spin to my subject, which happens to be me, in my youth. Plus, as you can tell, I decided to send it out a day early to beat the Christmas rush.One of the great mysteries many of us address in life is how we ended up where we are. What decisions did we make that set us down a certain path? Was it nature or nurture, luck or planning? My path toward my present life focusing on human and natural history in Seattle was one that I started

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7:49

Scarcely Fit For Food

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2025/12/18

On September 2, 1834, naturalist John Kirk Townsend camped near the Umatilla River in eastern Oregon. Joining him were the fellow members of an exploring expedition lead by Nathaniel Wyeth, including the botanist Thomas Nuttall and Joseph Thing, a Boston sea captain, hired to help navigate. Traveling in the arid landscape had been trying. The previous day the men had had no water until nine o’clock at night and on the second, Townsend’s food consisted of rose buds he had found above their camp

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7:17

Lower case r regrades

Street Smart Naturalist ·

2025/12/11

Often when I am out on a run, I like to go through alleys instead of sticking to streets. Mostly I do so to see new areas, plus, I always hope that I’ll see something fun or interesting in a backyard. I rarely do. But the other day, I had an epiphany about a topographic feature. The alley where I ran had a short rise, whereas the streets to the north and south did not. While I cannot prove this, I think the reason why, is that it probably made sense when the streets were platted to regrade the

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