Picture of Indian River taken a couple of days ago
All the excitement of the cuckoo during the last couple of days, and I kind of lost track of the other things I had wanted to make note of recently but didn’t quite get written up, so I’ll put what I can remember in this post.
One of the things that I’ve been noticing over the past few days but having a hard time articulating is my impression of the transition of vegetation from spring to summer. It seems like in most years there’s a time where I look around and it (sort of suddenly) feels different. I know that the plants grow gradually, and what feels like a distinct change to me is more an artifact of my awareness than any discrete jump in the world around me, but I’ve been struggling a little bit this year to try and figure out what triggers that internal shift. I think maybe it happens when I notice the new growth and leaves have filled in to where I can no longer see through the (non evergreen) trees and shrubs. This leads to a feeling of being a little more closed in, a feeling accentuated by the new stems of the fast growing salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) encroaching on many of the local trails.
Multiple Rufous Hummingbirds have been competing with the pair of Anna’s Hummingbirds that have been coming to our feeders all year. Connor refilled the smaller feeder a couple of days ago and it was already in need of filling again today.
Connor told me the Tree Swallow eggs have now hatched, so it will be interesting to keep track of the young birds’ progress over the next 3-4 weeks until they fledge.
On Tuesday afternoon walk down to Totem Park, I was a little surprised to see five Brant still down there.
Tuesday evening I made a quick trip up Harbor Mountain to look for the cuckoo. I did not have a lot of time, so I took my bike and road the 1.5 miles (well, most of it, I got off and walked a couple of times) to the picnic area, where I spent nearly hour looking around a bit. Although it had been sunny earlier in the day, the clouds had moved in, and some were even starting to touch down on the mountain while I was there.