It’s definitely getting on toward winter. Yesterday when I went on a birdwalk around 8am, it was still pretty dim light. The snow has been dropping down on the mountains as well. I’m sure there are things to see out there, but it’s getting hard to find the motivation to head out into the chilly winds and rain.

Weather: It’s been pretty blustery the last few days with some strong winds and heavy rain, though each day has seen a spot or two of sunshine as well. Today I saw a flash of lightning and heard the thunder. There was also some hail. The snow level dropped below 2500 feet today.

Birds: Yesterday the birding seminar folks went for a walk in the morning. There were several Mallards in the flume near the road behind Rasmusson. There were more Common Mergansers than I had seen previously, with several up in the river. Out on the flats near the river mouth, there were probably around 40 Green-winged Teal. A couple of Buffleheads were near Sage Beach.

Later in the day Tuesday, I observed a Golden-crowned Sparrow near the Business Office building.

Work and weather kept me inside for the most part over the last few days. Today I went out with a couple of other folks to look for birds.

Weather: It’s been rainy and windy with heavy rain and strong wind being pretty frequent. Today there was a brief opening in the clouds a little before noon.

Birds: A couple of people mentioned seeing owls around the SJ flume recently. They saw them in the morning and from their description, I think they saw Western Screech Owls.

There were lots of gulls in the channel today and it looked like there were probably several Black-legged Kittiwakes in among them.

There was a Great Blue Heron and several Buffleheads were in the lagoon near the wastewater treatment plant. There were also two or three Northern Flickers on Alice Island.

Out at Starrigavn there were three or four Red-necked Grebes out in the bay.

There was a dipper in Granite Creek and a dozen or so Harlequin Ducks at the mouth of the creek. Further down the shore were quite a few Black Turnstones.

On the way back into town we stopped and saw four Loons out off shore a little way. While we were stopped, I noticed a flock of geese flying over. Jeff Sauer (visiting from Juneau) noticed that they were white (it was difficult for me to tell against the overcast skies) and wondered if they might be Snow Geese. Marge said they could also be swans, but they were pretty far away to tell for sure. I did take a picture of most of the flock (see above). When I looked closely at the photo, I could see the underside of the primaries was dark compared to the rest of the bird. As best I can tell, this indicates these are Snow Geese.

For some reason I haven’t really been getting outside too much lately. I guess it’s easy to feel like staying in as the days get shorter, the rain falls, and the temperature hangs in the cool 40’s instead of the more pleasant 50’s.

Weather: After the Sunday and Monday sunshine, more typical October weather moved in on Tuesday. Clouds and rain with some spots of significant wind persisted through Tuesday and Wednesday. Today there were pretty big waves crashing out on the islands in the sound, but it was only a little breezy around campus.

Birds: A couple of days ago I saw Buffleheads for the first time this fall.

Today there were several Greater Scaups on Swan Lake as well as a couple of American Wigeons.

Flora: The alder trees in the back yard were really losing leaves in the wind on Tuesday.

I noticed a carrot family plant blooming on Lincoln Street today. I think it’s fairly safe to say that it will not have time to make seeds. I think it was a Kneeling Angelica.

Speaking of carrots, Connor and Rowan helped me pick some carrots in our small garden. They seemed to think it was a lot of fun.

The weather was nice again today, but the forecast for tomorrow is rain, so I decided to take advantage of the weather and spend much of the afternoon outside. We drove up Harbor Mountain again and this time Connor, Rowan, Melissa, and I hiked up to the top of the bowl and the small summit from which you can see town. The kids did very well climbing up and down the steep hillsides, though Melissa and I occasionally got a little nervous.

Weather: Partly cloudy with little wind. What clouds there were tended to be of the diffuse high altitude variety.

Birds: I heard a bird calling in the backyard that seemed a little more trill-y than Golden-crowned Kinglets. When I looked out the window, I saw a Brown Creeper fly from tree to tree.

We saw another hawk on Harbor Mountain, but not close enough for me to tell what it was. There were also several Bald Eagles soaring.

Plants: This evening I took a walk from the large Crescent Harbor Parking Lot back home along the harbor. It was striking how the different trees have lost different amounts of leaves. The alders have lost few leaves, while the cottonwoods have lost the vast majority of their leaves. The willows have lost much of their foliage, while some mountain ash have lost many leaves and others have not. There were a couple of mountain ash trees that were very colorful.

The clubmosses were quite evident in the subalpine areas of Harbor Mountain. Many of them had sporophytes evident.

Other Notes: Rowan pointed out moths on a couple of different occasions while on our hike and the drive back down. She seems to have quite an eye for them (though she calls them all butterflies).