Mostly sunny skies until this evening when clouds began to move over from the west. Freezing temperatures overnight warmed into the 40s, melting what little snow fell late last night.
I woke early this morning and heard a robin singing loudly outside. It’s the first I’ve heard in full song. I promptly went back to sleep.
I decided to head out during my call this morning. I drove out Halibut Point Road to see if herring might be spawning. I did not notice any areas of active spawn as far out as Kerr’s Island.
Malacodea pulchraria has an early and short flight season. They are variable in shade, with this one being on the paler and more contrasting side
After the call, I went for a walk around Totem Park. Several spring moths (Malacodea pulchraria) were on the walls at the visitor center.
Spring can seem slow in the weeks after equinox. Slowly but surely plants are pushing forward
I checked the spot where fern-leaved goldthread grows. I didn’t see any flowers blooming. I didn’t notice any blueberry flowers out either.
This evening I drove out the road again.
The lighting was not the best, but I could see cloudy water indicating spawning inside of Kerr’s Island. I went down to the shore and was able see a few herring in the shallows.
I’m not sure how consistent it is, but it seems like I’ve typically observed herring actively spawning on a falling tide. They start before it’s fully out, and it’s hard to say how long they continue.
I had set out with the idea of stopping by the tidepools at Little Magic Island. When I arrived there, I saw herring had also been spawning. The tidepools were cloudy and had bubbles on the surface, so I didn’t try and look into them.
Herring spawning activity turned the waters green
The herring spawn was happening from at least Little Magic Island to Magic Island. I’m not sure how much of the shoreline from there to Kerr’s Island was seeing spawn happening.
Spring song bird migrants have started showing up. A Savannah Sparrow was reported at Swan Lake today. Also I think robins are arriving from south. It’s hard to be 100% we’re not seeing robins that overwintered, but the behavior of newly arriving birds strikes me as different than the overwintering ones. The new arrivals are often out in open areas by themselves at first. In the coming days and weeks we’ll see more of them, though not really behaving as a group.
This afternoon I caught up on the last of my observations from January through March. I also published the last photojournal for that time period. It’s the first time since I started doing iNaturalist that I’ve kept up this long. It’s also the first time in a long time that I’ve kept up with publishing photo journals this far into the year without at least some gap.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
