Daily Observations

After spending the better part of the day inside, I left for a walk in the late afternoon.  I went up to Indian River near the trail head then followed the river down to Totem Park.  The water was fairly high, so I could not walk the river, but I did try to stay near it.

Weather:  There were only a couple of brief rain showers today. I did see a small patch of blue sky south of town on my walk, but that was the exception to the prevailing overcast.  Winds were calm.

Birds:  There was a lone Lesser Yellowlegs along Indian River just up parking lot across from Kalkae Pond.

There were several Ravens and Eagles on the Indian River Estuary beach.   I think at least some of them were arguing over fish.

10 Mallards were swimming around near the mouth of the river.   9 of them were in a group, with the 10th off by itself.

I saw a few Mergansers, most of them female, but a couple looked like juveniles.

There were probably 50 Black Turnstones scattered on the flats between the mouth of the river and where the tidepool is.

Once again, the Mew Gulls were the most numerous among the gulls along the shoreline.

I saw a lone Spotted Sandpiper along the shore of the west beach.

There were quite a few Ravens hanging out on the upper part of the west beach.  It was unclear to me what they were doing.  They did not seem to be eating, but I did observe some of them picking up pieces of wood and one pecking at a deteriorated piece of bull kelp.

Other Notes:  I took a closer look at the fireweed with multiple branches.  In each case it appeared that the main stem had been broken and the secondary stems grew up as a response.

There were a couple of fish skeletons, picked entirely clean.  If the past is any guide, later in the year, as the dead fish become more numerous, the birds will be a little more selective and the flesh will not be cleaned off so thoroughly.