Today I took a walk down to Lincoln Street Beach and then a little later was able to get a ride out the road on the chance that some Snow Buntings that were spotted yesterday might still be around.
Weather: It was breezy with pretty heavy rain showers at times. There were small patches of blue sky between showers, but the sun never really showed its face for any length of time. There seemed to be a significant loss of snow today on the flat. Where it had been plowed or compressed, the effect seemed less.
Birds: At Starrigavan there were well over 100 mergansers. Most of them were Common Mergansers, but there was also a dozen or more Red-breasted Mergansers. Despite the death of a swan a couple of weeks ago, there were 12 Trumpeter Swans at Starrigavan. This would imply that three more have joined the 9 (10-1) that were there for much of the winter. I also saw the three female Green-winged Teal that have been there all winter.
At HPR Rec, there were quite a few Harlequins around. A Horned Grebe was a ways south of Magic Island, and there were a few Surf Scoters in sight down that way as well. Also, a King Fisher was perched over Granite Creek.
I saw gulls and Pelagic Cormorants several locations.
At Swan Lake there were lots of gulls, a Hooded Merganser, Ring-necked Ducks, and scaups.
Other Notes: It seems the plants are as ready for spring as the rest of us. I saw both Salmonberries and Blueberries with buds broken open. Flowers and leaves won’t be far behind. The Villous Cinquefoil at Sage Beach had young leaves emerging as well.
The small green seaweed was still pretty thick on the rocks at the beach. In addition, there was a brown seaweed that looked like long hair on the rocks that was not there the last time I looked a couple of weeks ago or more. Larger fronds of other seaweeds that picked too small of a holdfast anchor have started washing up on the beach, so the marine algae are clearly growing.