The first couple of full days of spring were overcast with occasional rain, and I didn’t really get out much.
It wasn’t hard to heed the guidelines to self-isolate, as I had plenty of work to do, and by mid-afternoon was feeling a bit run-down each day. I’m not sure, but feel like I’m still fighting off the remnants of a cold that started a about three weeks ago (presumably well before much risk of exposure to covid-19 here). I’ve mostly felt clear of it except when I get a night or two of not very good sleep, and spend a bunch of time talking on the phone.
Today I was feeling a bit better, and the late morning and early afternoon working on photos-> iNaturalist from 2017. I finished up Q1, and am now well into April of Q2. As the days are getting longer, and the weather warmer, it’s an open question whether I get through 2017 before I’m getting out enough that it’s all I can do to keep up with this year.
It had started out cloudy, but by mid-afternoon it was mostly sunny, and I decided to get out and look around at least a bit. I drove to each end of the road, then spent some time looking around in the muskeg near the end of Baranof Street.
I was impressed by how much snow was blowing off Mt. Edgecumbe. The northwest wind was also blowing out of Katlian, with whitecaps in the waters off Harbor Point.
With plenty of cars out at Starrigavan, I wasn’t tempted to stop there. Halibut Point Rec was not as busy as last Sunday, but there were still several cars.
Whale Park parking lot was full on my way out, but had largely emptied out by the time I was headed back in.
Bear Mountain showed some snow blowing off, but nothing like Mt. Edgecumbe. It did not look like snow was blowing much on Cross Mountain at all.
I saw Connor at Herring Cove, he had walked out to the Green Lake powerplant, and was heading back to his mom’s. I chatted with him for a few minutes before we each continued on our way (he declined a ride in – his round trip was going to end up over 20 miles).
I was tempted to go up Herring Cove trail to get a look at a landslide that happened within the last week or so near the waterfall (I did take pictures of the top of it from the larger turnout before the industrial park). I may try to take a closer look in the next couple of days if I can make some time in the afternoon or evening.
Before my trip to the trailhead on Baranof Street, I stopped by the lake. The swans have moved on since I last looked (I didn’t notice anything other than Mallards), and in the past copule of days most of the ice has gone out, with maybe one third still covered.
My time in the muskeg was spent looking at epiphytes on the trees – the magnifying visor I purchased last year (to compensate as my ability to focus close has retreated to about 12″) seemed to work pretty well for investigating the lichens and bryophytes I was looking at.
I refound some examples of things I was reminded of working through early 2017 photos (when I visited that muskeg a couple of times), and had a chance to pick up a couple of more Ochrolechia collections.
This evening I spent a couple of hours reviewing different lichens, but in particular Caloplaca. It ended up resulting in a couple of possibilities for an observation I had previously had no idea about.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
