After increasingly unseasonal highs of 60F, it finally has started to cool off in the past couple of days. With yesterday afternoon’s dusting of snow and this morning’s frost, it seems like we’re finally headed into more fall-like conditions. Much of the ground did not seem to have frost on it, I imagine because there was enough heat still there to keep it from cooling off to that point. However, there was a nice display of frost patterns on the roof of the car. So much so, that I decided to take a moment to grab a photo before we headed out the road.
The big adventure of the day was a return to the landslide at Starrigavan. Despite Rowan’s protestations, we made it up to the upper side of the slide area, then walked up slide slope a bit along along the water course there. I’ll post more about the trip separately when I get a chance to process the photos.
On the return, I took a quick look at Sealing Cove to see if I could see any evidence of the sea star wasting disease that’s now shown up here (after devastating populations in other places along the west coast). While there, I also grabbed some shots of the brilliant white fresh snow against the deep blue sky. It seemed especially striking, I think in part because the air was quite clear.
This afternoon we spent an hour or so enjoying the sun at Magic Island. Originally the kids considered swimming, but after a little bit of wading, they thought better of it. All the sea temperatures have been warm (by which I mean in the mid-50s), there was a definite chill in the air today, and even ‘warm’ water doesn’t really seem too inviting without the warmer air. The sun still felt quite warm, but I noticed that if I had my legs up (as I was laying down) so part of them were shaded from direct sun (or its reflection off the water), the shaded parts would start to feel cold before long.
There were quite a few gulls and cormorants (mostly pelagic) just off of Magic Island when we arrived. They started dispersing shortly after. I had noticed a similar gathering near SeaMart within the past few days, as well. I assume there is some sort of food they’re finding, but I don’t know what it might be.
I also heard about a bunch of whale spouts in Eastern Channel from someone who has a restricted view (suggesting, they were all very concentrated together).
