Mostly cloudy and breezy. Thin clouds into the early afternoon allowed the sun to shine through and temperatures climbed into at least the mid-50s. A slight bit of rain fell this evening.
Today’s relatively sunny weather and somewhat warmer temperatures felt nice after the past several days of cooler temperatures. Even the steady southeast wind down at the beach wasn’t enough to make it feel cold.
With this morning’s 10am low running to -2.5ft, I decided to head down to see what I could find.
Had I started earlier, I might have gone out the road, but with only about 20-30 minutes to low, I opted for the park. After how many folks were at Sandy Beach yesterday (on a weekday with plenty of rain), I expected it to be pretty busy, but I did not see anyone else on the beach when I arrived. Over the couple of hours I was there, several others did arrive and spend some time poking around.
One of the things I was looking for in particular was Punctaria, a brown algae that grows epiphytically on eelgrass. A recent comment on an observation on iNaturalist suggested it’s good to have measurements of length and width. It’s actually fairly common when it’s out (I discovered last year, and reconfirmed this year), though easy to not pay too much attention to. I suspect it’s relatively short-lived in this form at least (which makes me wonder what it’s doing the rest of the year). That said, I guess I’m not entirely sure of that, so will try to remember to check during the low tide series at the end of June.
I wasn’t feeling too ambitious beyond that, but did turn over a few rocks while the tide was near its lowest. Highlights included a couple different species of pricklebacks, and a orange-with-iridescence polychaete worm.
The polychaete seemed pretty knotted after I pulled it out from where it was burrowing. It was interesting to watch how it crawled out of the knot and left the debris that had seemed attached behind. I suppose this is how they move through the sediment without getting caught up, but I’m not used to seeing such sticky-seeming stuff so easily left behind.
I headed to the upper part of the beach and relaxed in a wind-sheltered spot where I could still feel the sun. I then moved over to where I could see the river mouth and watched from there for a while.
I thought I might have heard a tern at one point, but it was faint and I never saw one.
There were still some American Pipits, and the mix of dabbling ducks included Northern Shovelers as well as a couple of American Wigeons and Mallards.
Both Swainson’s Thrush and Yellow Warbler have been reported, but I’ve not yet heard or seen either one this year.
There’s one section of the forest on the riverside of the Totem Pole loop that locals who have been around for a while still call the dark forest. I’m not sure what happened that resulted in the patch of dense second growth (perhaps windthrow?). Throughout my formative years, little light penetrated the closed canopy. In recent years the trees have thinned (with trees dying and falling down). Although still not a big tree open forest, it’s much lighter than it used to be. Today I noticed a view that shows a bit of the contrast. In the (increasingly less) dark forest, there is very little undergrowth vegetation (and not even much moss), though some is starting to come in. Through gaps in the trees, I could see a place with dense undergrowth where the forest has larger trees and is more open – a more old growth character. It also helps that it’s adjacent to the riverside alder stand.
Back by the visitor center I saw an adult junco very focused on gathering food in the grass, and could hear a couple of other birds calling. I wondered if there were fledglings about, so sat and watched. It didn’t take long to see an aggressive fledgling getting food from the adult (at one point even giving the appearance of attacking in its attempt to get food). I tried recording some of the calls I was hearing.
Before heading home I spent a few minutes trying to take pictures of flies by the visitor center with limited success. It probably didn’t help to have my bulky (and not especially light) backpack on.
This afternoon I ended up napping for an hour or so in the greenhouse thing on the deck. It felt pleasantly warm in there. It’s probably time to move some plants in it for the summer season.
I also checked some of what’s growing on the deck (they really get very little tending). I was a little surprised to see chives coming up in a couple of different containers. Presumably seeds spread from the one clump I have. I also noticed the western buttercups I have spread to a nearby container. The nagoonberries that grew from ones I brought from Rust Lake are blooming, as are the hybrids I purchased. The Viola biflora seem to be doing well.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
