Mostly cloudy with a fair bit of sun in the afternoon. Temperatures in the 50s.
I was up early (for me) this morning as I continue to gradually adjust my sleep schedule in anticipation of doing the breeding bird survey next week.
I walked to Totem Park with some hope that the Franklin’s Gulls Connor saw last night might have returned.
While walking out along the beach, I noticed the clouds seemed to be breaking up. It ended up being much more sunny in the afternoon.
I did spot the Franklin’s Gulls along the shoreline with other gulls. I spent some time with them as the tide slowly pushed up over the flats. They ultimately flew off when they (and other gulls) flushed as a float plane took off and flew over.
This afternoon I heard from VV that a Caspian Tern as down with the gulls. I initially checked from Eagle Way and could just see it through the heat shimmer. I decided to make the walk out again.
After getting photos of the tern, I started back.
A blooming cow parsnip with several flies caused to stop. With all the rain, I’ve not been seeing many insects on flowers.
A sea breeze had come up, so I had trouble getting the photos I would have liked. I tried to focus as best I could and took many photos with a high shutter speed hoping that I would catch something reasonably well as it moved back and forth.
Among the flies was a hoverfly that I’ve only seen once before.
Later this afternoon I went back to Mosquito Cove.
I found a spot on the beach that wasn’t exactly out of the wind, but the breeze seemed much less noticeable. As I laid there listening, the clouds slowly built.By the time I got up to leave, it was fully overcast.
Especially warm days have been few and far between this spring. I checked and saw we had one day in May which hit 60F, but no days this year have been warmer. I checked and found that this year will already be the 6th latest on the record (at the airport) for the first 61F degree day. Given the forecast, it’s likely this year will end in the top 5, and there’s an outside chance of even higher. Forecast is currently calling for more sun and warmer temperatures next week, so we’ll see what happens.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
