Weather: It was not raining today, but overcast skies continued. Winds were negligible.
Flora: On the walk to the park, I took a look at a plant I had previously seen in the estuary but had not been able to identify. It was blooming today and looked a lot like scurvy grass. It may be scurvy grass, but I am not sure why it’s development is so much later than the other instances of it that I have seen.
I saw some red huckleberries just starting to get ripe along Lincoln Street.
I forgot to mention that the cotton from the cottonwood trees was blowing about a week ago.
Some of the Red Elderberries are starting to turn red.
There are hemlock seedlings in great abundance right now (see photo). Almost everywhere there is open ground, the hemlocks are trying to get a start. I suspect these are from the bumper crop of cones after last years pollen explosion.
Birds: There was a flock of Black Turnstones out near the river mouth at the park today. They were out on one of the gravel bar islands created by the incoming tide, so I was not able to see how many there were nor, if there were any others in among them.
There were a couple of mallards (females, it appeared to me) flying over the tide flats at the park. I did not notice any in the estuary.
This evening I saw a great blue heron flying over the house. Later in the evening I heard one perched in one of the trees behind the house. As I was looking for it, it took off and flew away. I am not sure if it was seeking to get away from my attention, or perhaps something else was disturbing it.
There was what appeared to be a family of Townsend’s Warblers feeding in the backyard alders this afternoon.
Other Notes: Connor and his grandpa went fishing at Indian River today. They managed to land a couple of pink salmon that were still pretty bright. The fish have not really started moving up river in significant numbers yet, but there are definitely sizable schools getting ready to move up.
Rowan and her grams went along with Connor and grandpa to watch. When I stopped by to see how things were going, Rowan was having fun looking for butterflies (that were actually moths, I think).