Steady rain through much of the day, though rarely very heavy. Breezy on the water, but I didn’t notice it much where I was out and about.
I headed out to Starrigavan for the high tide again today. This time my timing was not confused. The prediction was for a bit higher than yesterday. A bit of atmospheric boost pushed it up from the 11.7ft predicted to over 12ft.
I realized part of the reason I so easily went with the incorrect 1pm high tide time yesterday, is that’s a typical time for the highest tides in a series during the fall and winter months. Of course once the time change happens in early November, the 2pm tide would be at 1pm, so that checks out. However, the highest tide of the series was predicted to be today at 2:30pm.
Typically the highest tides when I am trying to catch the highest tide of the year are between 11am and 1pm. I suspect this tide series is running a little later due to how close it is to fall equinox, but I’m not sure.
I was also interested to note the progression of highs was only just over 30 minutes. On average it’s closer to 50 minutes a day, I think. Clearly there’s some variation in that, however.
At Starrigavan it was noticeably higher than yesterday. My sense of it was probably more exaggerated than the actual difference since I had been first shown up so much earlier than the high yesterday.
When I was driving down Nelson Logging road, cars were stopped along the road again. This time they seemed to be focused on the upland side. I couldn’t really see that well, and only later learned the same bear I had seen yesterday was resting on a log not far up the hill in the forest.
Today I stayed on the boardwalk along the upper part of the estuary meadow as the tide crested.
The birds were quieter today (and less responsive to my pishing attempts), but I did see a few Song Sparrows and a Varied Thrush.
I noticed the cars slowly moving down Nelson Logging Road and figured the bear must be on the move. I incorrectly assumed it was up in the forest, but later saw it on the foot path walking towards the main road. By that time, it had quite a following.
It turned left on the main road and disappeared.
A bit later, when I was beginning to think about heading back, the bear had reappeared along Nelson Logging road. I’m guessing it went up and over the small hill through the forest, but it could have just come back around on the road.
It did the same thing I watched yesterday, moving through the brush and trees between the path and the river before stopping for a bit a particularly dense patch where it was not easily seen.
By this time I was on the foot bridge, and considered staying there. Then it occurred to me I wouldn’t have a lot of room to maneuver on the off chance the bear decided to cross the bridge. I decided to wait on the platform overlooking the river with another person instead.
Not long after most of the cars had moved on, the bear came out on the road and started walking up it.
With the heavy clouds and rain, the light was not good, but I did take some photos. Rather than crossing the bridge, it dropped down into the bushes again on the up river side of the bridge.
Looking at my pictures today, I realized this bear is the same one I saw eating dead fish last Saturday. I’m not sure if it is one of the two that I saw on Sunday, but I suspect so.
Last night it felt a bit warmer outside than it has in other recent days. It had been pretty sparse, even for the small midges and winter cranefly type insects that are often abundant, but which I don’t typically try to document. Last night there were quite of few of those flying around again, as well as a caddisfly and another fly I took photos of.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
