Swan Lake

It turned out to be pleasant weather for Christmas. Winds were calm and the clouds broke up a bit in the afternoon. I took a short walk to Swan Lake to see what was around before going to eat dinner with family.

Was fairly quiet at the lake, though I was interested to a male Common Merganser cruising around – they mostly stick to salt water and rivers around here, in my experience. A lone Trumpeter Swan was resting near the peninsula, offering easy views, and a first year Glaucous Gull was bathing in the lake before coming to shore to preen.

Before I left, the sun broke out a bit on Verstovia – it was nice to see the bright snow and blue sky behind the broken clouds.

Read more

Walk to Totem Park

Around noon (shortly after the 12.38 high tide) I went for a walk down along Lincoln Street and through the park. I was thinking with the high tide there might be some birds fairly close to land, but it was much quieter than I hoped. I did see some Harlequin Ducks and gulls by the park. Black Turnstones on the beach, and Red-breasted and Common Mergansers off-shore and in the river, respectively.

Weather was quite gray this morning, though it was starting to get brighter by the time I left. While out walking, the clouds broke up and I saw a brief bit of sun and blue sky between the rain and hail squalls.

Read more

Water-logged Dandelion

On an wet August hike up Indian River valley, I found this dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) looking quite robust in a pool of standing water. Dandelion is an introduced species and considered fairly invasive. It’s the only introduced species I’ve noticed occurring with any regularity in locations that haven’t been directly impacted by humans (and usually … Read more

More Moths

Ceranemota fasciata photographed September 2011 Today I spent some time going through the photo backload. A chunk of the photos from this year and last are pictures of various moths that I came across. Many moths (especially in 2010 and early this year) were ones Rowan caught and brought to me, but in the fall … Read more