Busy Week

This week promises to be busy – it’s finals week, so I’m trying to get work graded and back, plus write tests – the big flurry of activity before grades are due. As a result, I did not spend too much time outside today, and tomorrow looks like it will be similarly home-bound. Wednesday, I’ll be helping with the elementary school bioblitz day out at Starrigavan. Last year the weather was sunny and warm, but it’s not looking so promising for this year.

After class this morning I spent some time looking at gulls in the channel. There were quite a few out in the middle, including some that seemed to have extra dark wing tips. I wondered if they might be California Gulls, but it was difficult to tell (for me) from that distance. They could have been Herring Gulls. I did also notice some where I could see their tail feathers which still had black on them. In the past I’ve been fooled by sub-adult gulls that look mostly adult-like (especially from a distance when they are sitting on the water), but have very dark primary tips.

A few days ago I forgot to write about seeing a Rufous Hummingbird pick at the spiderwebs in the covered deck area. I couldn’t be 100% sure, but I think it was picking little insects (and maybe spiders) out of the webs. I suppose it also could have just been gathering web for nest building.

I recently also got a report of a junco nesting in an interesting place. It’s in a fairly well-traveled area and presumably curious folks could easily disturb it. I’ll see about sharing the photos after the nesting is done, as I think it’s pretty interesting.

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