Daily Observations

Deerheart and Fern

Rowan and I went a couple of different places today. We stopped by Swan Lake briefly to take a look. We also took a walk through the park.

Weather: It was overcast for most of the day, with a very light rain that fell for a time. When we were at the park there was a pretty good breeze out of the Southeast. The sun broke through a little bit in the in the evening, and the winds had calmed.

Birds: There were at least a couple of Northern Shovelers at Swan Lake. I also saw Mallards with ducklings. There was at least one Tree Swallow that appeared to be gathering nesting materials.

Totem Park estuary was pretty quiet, but there were a few gulls out on the beach.

Flora: When riding up to the house, I noticed a strong slightly sour smell. I looked up in the direction of the wind and saw the Red Elderberry bush in bloom. I had forgotten that elderberry had such a smell.

The upper intertidal beach plants continue to grow. There was the start of flower buds on what I think is a milkwort.

I revisited the slime mold to take a picture of it, but it had changed dramatically since I last saw it.

Invertebrates: I was able to observe a spider with a web at our porch carry a fly back up to where it could be consumed later.

At the park I saw a number of pill bugs (aka potato bugs, sow bugs, or roley-poleys). The first one that caught my eye was about 5 feet up on the trunk of a Red Alder tree. The others were in a log along the very upper part of the beach. There many of them crawling about and crammed into nooks in the rotting log.

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