Mostly cloudy and a bit warmer today with temperatures into the mid 50s. Winds were light.
It took a quick walk around the park this morning before I had a call. There was a nice mix of birds, similar to what’s been there the past couple of days, at least.
This afternoon Rowan went with me out to Halibut Point Rec. We ended up spending longer there than I expected. First looking at small arthropods on/near a stranded log while the tide dropped a bit. I mentioned to her that I always seem to see more tiny stuff when she is around.
After the tide had dropped a bit, we collected some Pyropia nereocystis growing on bull kelp that had drifted ashore. The most time consuming was rinsing the sand off the seaweed in a tidepool, and trying to remove parts that were well past their prime.
While we were there, we were able to observe a heron that was much more tolerant of attention than most. It may have been because it was not fully mature, or perhaps because it was having lots of success catching food. In the few minutes I was watching, it seemed to be grabbing a small fish (appeared to be salmon fry) at least a couple of times a minute.
A little bit south of the rec, I took pictures of Wandering Tattlers (#119). I had heard from LP about five (which is a good count for here), and was surprised to see six in my photos.
On a brief stop at the lake, I wondered what was causing the flock of geese (mostly white-fronted, but also some Cackling Geese) to move like someone was coming up to them quickly. No one was there, but they were clearly agitated. I happened to glance up and see a red helium balloon drifting diagonally above Lake Street and over the peninsula heading towards the upper end of the lake. As it got close to overhead, the geese took off and flew into the water. I imagine the geese were nervous about it, as they probably have experience with aerial predators.
I was considering a second trip around the park when I got a message from DK about godwits at the main part of the rec.
Returning there I was able to get photos of two Hudsonian Godwits (#120) working the shoreline in front of the north shelter.
Connor had gone through the park on his way home from work. Since he didn’t see anything new, I decided to stay home and work on processing some of the hundreds of photos I ended up taking today.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
