A few showers during the day, mostly brief and not especially heavy while I was out, but there was a heavier shower or two later this evening.
I dropped car off shortly before 8am for some maintenance, then walked back through the park.
I ended up spending a fair bit of time with the Ruff when I found it where it had been yesterday. This time it seemed much less tired, but no less cooperative.
When it settled down to rest among the piles of seaweed, the Ruff could blend in quite well, despite it’s relatively large size (for a shorebird).
While sitting on the beach, I noticed a flycatcher that didn’t look like a Pacific-slope Flycatcher working the alders. I lost track of it for long periods of time, but it did keep coming back out regularly over the couple of hours I was watching.
I thought it was probably a Western Wood-Pewee, which I was able to verify from my photos (#164).
I went out to the golf course late this afternoon to revisit and collect a sedge I had previously observed that seemed a bit different (identity yet to be determined).
Moths have really slowed down around the house this week. Pretty much just a couple of lingering yellow-underwing moths (Noctua pronuba). I have seen a couple of moths at/near the park, including a herald moth (Scoliopteryx libatrix) today. This is only the second one I’ve seen.
I spent some time checking my year list of birds and how many of them I have photos of this year. I found only five species I have observed but not photographed, Black-billed Magpie, Western Screech Owl, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, and Yellow-rumped Warbler. It’s quite likely I’ll get pictures of the warbler this fall. Of the remainder, there’s probably a no better than even chance (unless the crossbills show up late in the year, which they do sometimes).
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
