Temperatures warmed a bit today, reaching near freezing by late in the afternoon. There had been no snow accumulation overnight nor through much of the day, but by late this evening there was enough to cover the ground. Forecasts are calling for 1-3 inches overnight, so it will be interesting to see if that happens. Winds were still calm around the house for much of the day, though when they shifted to the southeast for a while later in the afternoon, I heard the breeze through the trees and the neighbor’s wind chimes were going.
I took a walk up Indian River today to collect/deploy the ibuttons. I have a new setup that allows me to just bring a tablet along with the ibutton reader and it will automatically grab the data and refresh the mission. Today was the first time I deployed any with that capability, so on future trips up that way, as long as I have my tablet and the reader it will be trivial to collect the data. It seems like that should make keeping up with them a little easier.
It was fairly quiet along up the valley, windy along the walk there, but once on the trail, there was little wind. I heard a couple of dippers, some chips and even a burst of song from Pacific Wrens, and on the way back a flock of quite a few small birds that I think may have all been chickadees. Certainly the ones I heard best were, but they were quick moving silhouettes flitting through the branches, so I didn’t get a good look. I also noticed more squirrels than I’m used to seeing, though I’m not sure why.
When I reached the road, there were two juncos that seemed to be to be alarming quite loudly (especially for juncos). They were in a thicket of salmonberry bushes with at least one perched on a rock (that marked the edge of the road – the salmonberries had grown up around it), but they were not high up. I saw a wren across the road from them that seemed to have flown up to check out the commotion, but it did not join in the alarming. The juncos then flew off a little ways and continued to alarm for just a little longer. I did not see anything for them to be upset about, so I’m not sure what had them going, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me.
Around the house I saw two Anna’s Hummingbirds acting a bit aggressively with each other, and I think both probably visited the feeders.
I also forgot to mention that yesterday Rowan and I noticed a moth had emerged in one of the jars. I took pictures today, but it wouldn’t spread its wings, so they aren’t especially helpful. We were able to get an id from the caterpillar, however. It’s too early to release it, so it will go in the collections (but hopefully not until it’s spread its wings for a photo). It had a long coiled proboscis, so I tried giving it some sugar water via a soaked tissue. It didn’t really do anything with it while I was watching, so it will be interesting to see if there’s any evidence that it has moved at all by tomorrow.