Another gray day, but the drizzle and showers stopped for long enough this afternoon that the pavement dried.
It felt warmer to me, but snow level was still down to around 2000 feet or less on the mountains. I wonder if the relatively dry (no rain actually falling) conditions contributed to a perception of warmth.
I heard a couple of new birds (sort of) singing this morning in the yard. A Golden-crowned Sparrow has been around, but I hadn’t heard it before. I also heard a robin sing a few notes. These didn’t sound like full on songs, but they were getting their voices warmed up, at least. The robin made me wonder about migrants, as we’re getting to the time when the first song bird migrants return (robins and Ruby-crowned Kinglets are among the first).
Motivated in part by curiosity about whether I might see more robins, I decided to get out for a bit this afternoon.
The channel was relatively quiet gull-wise, but the Long-tailed Ducks were fairly close to shore. They were actively calling, and I think doing some courting-type displays. I noticed a couple of males tipping forward as they called and really lifting their long tail feathers.
Rowan was with me, and as we drove down Lincoln Street she said she saw a different looking bird. It was a smaller bird in with a group of bigger birds. The larger ones turned out to be Pine Grosbeaks, and the smaller was a Purple Finch. I’m assuming it’s the one that has been seen sporadically since last fall.
They were all in a mountain ash tree, and I wondered if they were finding lingering berries (which I had figured were pretty much all gone by now). Reviewing my photos at home, I realized they were eating the leaf buds – something I’ve seen Pine Grosbeaks doing previously.
I’m not sure what it was, perhaps just the contrast from a long winter with low light, but the mosses (and lichens) in the forest seemed especially green today. The abundant moisture of late is no doubt a contributing factor helping the condition of the mosses, but I suspect it was as much about my subjective perception than a significant objective change.
I noticed blueberry buds broken open in the forest at the park, but did not see any flowers.
A fair number of gulls were out on the tide flats, but I did not spot any that seemed unusual.
I felt much better today compared to yesterday. A more or less full night of sleep helped. I must have still had a bit of a fever when I went to bed, as I woke up at some point in the night quite sweaty. I’ve noticed this happens when a fever breaks. I’m a little tired this evening, but the aches and stronger fatigue of yesterday seem to have passed.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
