When I went to bed last night it was snowing, but not much more accumulated, and some compaction must have occurred, as Connor said there were only 17 inches in the yard when he measured this morning (I had measured 18 inches last night). Checking Harbor Mountain, I see the snow depth decreased three inches (from high point of about 4.5 feet). I guess that works out to be about 5% in each case.
Today was my first day observing for the Crescent Harbor project. I had a 4 hour shift that started at 9:30am. The person on before me said it had been about 20F when she started, but it was up to 30F by the time I got there.
I noticed the higher clouds over Baranof Island appeared to me moving NW->SE, though apparently at a lower level the winds were more out of the ESE, based on several eagles soaring in place. There was a shield of clouds over the sound and off shore that varied in position a little bit while I was observing, but eventually came over town later in the afternoon.
Winds were light overall, but seemed a bit out of the southeast earlier, and by early afternoon, a bit out of the north or northeast. Even the light wind definitely made a difference in how easy it was to stay warm.
I saw Song Sparrows several times, including a territorial interaction where one appeared to chase another over a fair distance. It seems like pretty chilly weather to be investing that much in territoriality, but perhaps these intertidal feeding birds are not so impacted by the snow as some others might be. It also may be that the dock removal is displacing some birds, so there would be a bit of adjustment going on.
I saw a lone Bohemian Waxwing along the seawalk finding old mountain ash berries and also eating a snowberry or two.
I’m not sure the Anna’s Hummingbirds will survive (or stay through) the coming cold snap if it’s as cold as forecast. It’s been several years since we had such cold, and in those days it was not unusual for them to disappear at some point during the winter.
This evening when I dropped Rowan off at one end of her paper route (she had been waiting for a package to be delivered at her mom’s and didn’t make it back here until 6pm) I noticed the wind starting to pick up and blow snow off the roof of he national guard armory.
It still wasn’t too breezy when we came home from the Beak, but there is a big blob of precipitation offshore that looks like it’s headed this way.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
More photos to come
