It was unseasonably warm (and warmer than forecast), with temperatures reaching 50F (or pretty close). I don’t know, but wonder if this was due in part to only partly cloudy skies that allowed plenty of sun through during the day. I stopped by the Backdoor for pizza and saw Larry, who I asked about the Northern Mockingbird. He’s been keeping track of the days he sees it, and let me know that it was still around (now well into its second month), and said he would let me know when it seems to have moved on.
I decided to take advantage of the warm sun and visited the mostly vacant lot below where Larry lives (it does look like they might be getting ready to do some foundation work soon). After about 5-10 minutes of waiting, the mockingbird flew over to the mountain ash tree, grabbed a berry, then moved over to the fence. At one point I saw the berry come back out to where it was being held at the end of the bill, then (I think) the mockingbird swallowed it again. I grabbed a few shots of the bird on the fence, now looking a bit less ratty than when I first saw it, before it flew down behind the fence.
This afternoon I stopped by Whalefest and caught parts of a couple of different talks. The theme of this year’s conference is gizmos and gadgets, and I thought it was interesting to learn a little bit about some of the difficulties injecting whales (with sedatives to help relax them so entangled gear might be removed) or getting satellite trackers into whales.
