Melissa had a rental car the last couple of days, so I was able to see both ends of the road yesterday and we drove out to Starrigavan today. I didn’t actually get around and walk at all, however. I did play a little bit of frisbee in the snow this afternoon, however.
Weather: Yesterday was fairly nice, with a fair number of breaks in the clouds and little additional snow. Today it rained and snowed in the morning, with snow later in the morning and this afternoon. Some the flakes were huge. I’m calling it spring snow based on the thought that big snow flakes like this are more typical for snow in the spring. (I think this is more wishful thinking than anything else.) Winds were quite calm today. The snow on the lawn on campus as decreased in depth quite a lot in the last few days. It was only a few inches deep when we were running around in it this afternoon.
Birds: I counted 13 swans at Starrigavan yesterday, so I must have missed one (or it showed up later) on Friday. There were still a lot of mergansers at Starrigavan on Friday as well.
The gulls have really gathered along the beach between Sea Mart and Sandy Beach. There are also lots of eagles in the trees along the shoreline. I guess they’re all waiting for the herring to move into the shallows.
There’s been a report of an adult eagle cannibalizing other eagles at HPR rec lately.
Today there were lots of cormorants and ducks of some sort spread out along the shore from Sea Mart north. I didn’t get a good look, so I’m not sure what all the ducks were.
Yesterday there were quite a number of scaups in the lagoon by the airport.
Other Notes: Yesterday there was a whale near the mouth of Silver Bay. Today there were two whales fairly close to shore near the turnout that looks out on to the Kasiana Islands. It appeared that a couple of boats were watching them.
The anticipation for the herring spawn is rising. Off Sandy Beach there was a boat pulling in a net that, given the number of birds flocking over it, must have had fish in it. I assume it was a haul to sample the roe percentage to see if it’s time for the opening yet. I would like to get out on the boat during herring time this year, but I’m not sure it will happen.
