Rain fell into early this afternoon. Thinning of clouds and a little bit of sunlight this afternoon, with additional clearing later this evening.
I stopped by Swan Lake then went to Moller Park/Path of Hope. From the upper end of the lake, I saw five ducks that I think were Gadwalls or a mix of Gadwall and American Wigeons.
Although the tides are predicted to be higher later in the week, I went out to Starrigavan for today’s high. I remain curious about the bubbles that often show in places when the tide is coming in. Presumably there’s some sort of hollow in the ground where they bubble up, but I’m not sure.
There was plenty of gull activity in the channel in the channel when I stopped by. It seemed to me like a higher proportion of them immature gulls than I’ve seen previously this year.
I took a few pictures of some European Starlings still showing fresh plumage.
This evening I suggested to Connor he get a fire going in the fireplace. When he started it, the smoke came back into the house instead of going up the chimney. In hindsight, I think that with the bathroom and kitchen fans going, plus the clothes dry pushing air out of the house, there was too much pull elsewhere. The fastest fix would have been to open a door. Unfortunately that’s not what we did until a bit later, and the house ended up getting quite smoky.
Even after blowing much of the smoke out with a fan, there was enough left in the house that it bothered me and I started getting a headache.
I opted to go to bed early, but that was short-lived.
With cloudy weather today, and thinking the CMEs from the sun were due to hit yesterday (nothing really happened) or tomorrow, I hadn’t even thought to check the aurora forecast. As it turned out, the clouds cleared off early in the evening, and the second CME travelling in the wake of the first resulted in a significant event.
Fortunately, Connor and Rowan had gone to the airport to pick up their mom who was arriving on the late flight. Not long after I had settled into bed, Connor texted me about northern lights showing. Rowan had noticed them and suggested he text me. If they had not told me, I probably would have slept through them (like a number of other folks who posted their regrets on Sitka Chatters the next day).
Since they had the car, I walked to the Sitka memorial park to start. When they came by, I stopped by the house to get my wider lens and we all headed out. I spent the next 3+ hours out enjoying the show and taking pictures. I’m planning to do a more thorough write up featuring more photos soon.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
