After a late night finishing grades and having a couple of calls today, I found that despite the good (-1.2) low tide this morning, the overcast skies and my own tiredness left me feeling less inspired than I was on recent days with more sleep and sunny weather. I didn’t really expect to spend much time outside, but this afternoon Connor called me to say he thought there might be an elephant seal by Sage Beach. I got down there and briefly saw the seal before I realized that my camera wasn’t in my bag, so I went back home to get it. Shortly before I made it back, a siren woke the seal up and it swam away. It stayed in the area for a little while, but I never did get a good look at it as it seemed to only come back close after I had went someplace else (namely, over to the park). Connor got some good pictures of it, and learned that it was a Harbor Seal. I didn’t know this before, but apparently they have white vibrissae (what I would call whiskers), which this one did, while those of an elephant seal are black. (Not that I often get a close enough look to tell!)
Connor also spotted a Yellow-billed Loon out in the bay – perhaps the same one reported by someone else this morning out at Starrigavan. On my trip(s) over to the park, I saw 5 Semipalmated Plovers and 4 Black-bellied Plovers as well as a few Least Sandpipers.
Weather remained overcast through the day, though it seemed reasonably warm. There was a light breeze at the beach that seemed to be coming out of the West or Northwest. It was still light out when I came home from a talk (about the COASST project) around 9pm.
One of my orders of plants (shrubs mostly) arrived today, so I’ll need to get those in the ground soon.