I stopped by Swan Lake briefly a couple of times today, then went for a walk to Totem Park with Connor and Rowan this afternoon.
Weather: It was overcast throughout the day with a pretty good wind. It started raining this afternoon. Temperatures were in the lower-60s in the morning, but cooled off when the rain started.
Birds: At Swan Lake this morning I saw one Northern Pintail and one Green-winged Teal. While I was sitting there, 4 more teal flew in. This afternoon, I did not see either the pintail or the teal.
At Totem Park there were quite a few Black Turnstones. The most I saw at once was about 30, but I think there were probably more than that, as they were spread out from near the Visitor’s Center all the way around to the river mouth.
There were hundreds of gulls between the Battlesite Point and the river mouth. There seemed to be more Mew Gulls today than a couple of days ago. There were also several Black-legged Kittiwakes and one Caspian Tern. Most of the gulls were Glaucous-winged, Thayer’s, or Herring Gulls. There were a few gulls up in the river feeding on dead salmon.
Other Notes:
Rowan found a couple of caterpillars on salmonberry bushes as we were walking along the trail. She has gotten pretty good at spotting them, I guess. They seemed to be variations on the theme of the ones she has been getting around the house. They were mostly brown, one had spots, the other didn’t. The spots were a little more yellow then the ones I remember seeing here, however.