Daily Observations

Brown-headed Cowbird

I went with Connor and Rowan down to Totem Park this afternoon.

Weather: Rains have returned. I woke up in the night last night and heard the rain falling on the roof. This morning when I took Connor to school I got soaked. This afternoon and evening there was partial clearing the sun came out for a bit, but the rain has now returned again tonight. It was a little bit windy, but not too bad.

Birds: There was a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird along Monastery Street just down from Baranof School.

I had hopes of seeing some new shorebirds at the park, but I only saw Black Turnstones and one Least Sandpiper. The sandpiper appeared to be injured. It did not fly as far as they typically do when spooked, when it did fly, I did not seem to have tailfeathers, and when it was walking around, it looked like something was hanging out where it shouldn’t be on the back end. Still, it walked around foraging in the washed up seaweed without any trouble.

Quite a few gulls. The percentage of Glaucous-winged Gulls seemed higher today, but I’m not sure how much weight I would put on that subjective impression.

There were a few Mallards and at least one Merganser in the river mouth/estuary (the tide was up fairly hight).

Ravens were out and about on the beach and flying over the forest.

Flora: It looks like a bumper crop of Mt. Ash berries this year. Most of the trees I notice, even small ones, are pretty well loaded with fruit.

Leave a Reply