Mostly cloudy with rain, mostly in the morning.
At various times this morning I saw blue sky out the window and heard rain falling on the roof.
A larger gap between showers persisted through much of the afternoon, with a fair bit of sun able to shine through.
After lunch I checked out the channel. Gull numbers were down, so I’m guessing there had not been much processing activity today.
I prepared my radio show for tomorrow before heading over to Totem Park. I had seen flocks of gulls on the flats when I drove across the bridge. I hoped to find the Slaty-backed Gull again, which was part of my motivation for going there.
Gloiopeltis furcata a fairly common, but often overlooked species of the high intertidal.
Before making it to the gulls, my attention was drawn by some seaweed near the upper part of the beach.
Rockweed (Fucus distichus) and Mastocarpus growing together
I had previously noticed a different looking seaweed growing in the Fucus zone. Today I noticed what I think is the same thing. However, I also noticed a clump that seemed to include parts that looked very much like popweed (Fucus distichus). Now I’m wondering if it’s different forms or stages of the same species.
The black dots are part of a lichen Collemopsidium which grows on barnacles. It's my undertanding the lichen causes the pitting in the shell as well.
While I was down looking, I took pictures of a barnacles, including some which have a lichen growing on them. I knew I had documented the lichen previously, but could not remember the name. I used iNaturalist to help remember, and was a little surprised to see that I had 10 observations of it. All but one of those were over two days in March 2020 when I first went looking for it. I hadn’t made any further observations since then.
On my way out to the gulls, a Great Blue Heron flew by. I didn’t have my camera ready fast enough for the best photos, but did manage a couple as it was landing.
Bear Mountain reflected in a large tidepool on the flats at Totem Park
I saw a couple of folks making their way along the beach and realized they would almost certainly cause the heron to take off again. This time I was ready.
The lighting wasn’t the best, but I think at least some of the photos I got are probably improvements over my previous best heron in flight shots.
A bit later the heron repositioned again to a place where I had the sun at my back. I spent about half an hour watching it and taking pictures.
At first I thought the heron had only caught seaweed. As I watched, I saw there was a small fish (probably prickleback) as well.
During the time I watched, it caught several small fish. Once I saw it come up with a piece of seaweed. Although it seems unlikely, the thought crossed my mind that it had made a mistake. It turned out to have a fish with the seaweed, and was able to drop the seaweed and still get the fish.
Herons can move impressively slow. This one picked its feet up almost entirely out of the water. Very slowly moving its foot forward, it seemed nearly motionless. The balance they have is impressive.
I did make it to the gulls before spending half an hour watching the heron. I scanned over them without spotting anything that looked unusual.
They had seemed unconcerned with me, so I was a little surprised when they all took off when I was looking away (so I didn’t see if the ones nearest me took off first). Although I looked back behind me to check, I didn’t see the Bald Eagle at first. It’s powerful wing beats soon brought it out over the water, where the flock of flying gulls parted to make way. The eagle was not interested in the gulls. It must have seen something in the water which prompted it to fly out, but it aborted a swoop down well before reaching the surface.
I considered heading home, but decided to check out the larger flock of gulls near the mouth of Indian River.
First shoots of fireweed are coming up
I noticed some new growth of herbaceous plants just above the beach. A few shoots of fireweed were a couple of inches tall. Cow parsnip was also out.
These male Northern Shovelers are earlier than I would expect migrants. I suspect they wintered in the area.
The female Wood Duck was on the beach near the water with some Mallards. Two Northern Shovelers were not something I expected to see. Shovelers tend to be on the later side for waterfowl migrants, so I suspect these overwintered in the area and have just moved from a location not far away.
One of the two remaining Trumpeter Swans that have been spending most of their time at Swan Lake.
I had seen a lone Trumpeter Swan fly out to the edge of the beach. I suspect it had been spooked out of the estuary by the noise of a boat that came near the river mouth. It turned out to be the one with the forehead wound.
I didn’t get the best look, but saw it still appeared to have the bulging nictitating membrane. I heard back from Victoria (the vet I asked) and learned that it’s caused by leaches. With that information, I was able to find more information on the internet. I learned the leeches get under the membrane and that keeps the birds from being able to scratch them off. Apparently in some places for some species, leeches can be quite a problem, especially for young birds. In addition to the eyes, they can also get into the duck equivalent of nostrils. Although I was glad to have the mystery of the bulging eyes solved, I did find it unsettling to consider (especially when I saw one description of pulling leeches out of the eyes of people).
I did not find the Slaty-backed Gull in with the gulls at the river mouth.
The birds seemed not very wary of me today. The heron was much more tolerant than I’ve come to expect. The gulls and ducks also did not seem very concerned. In the case of the ducks, I imagine it’s probably because they’re used to people from their time at Swan Lake.
I’ve noticed the apparent my zone of disturbance seems to vary. I’m not sure how much of that’s me and how I’m showing up, and how much of it’s difference in the size of the bird’s comfort zone. At times (especially with herons) it seems like a glance from across the beach causes them to take off. Other times they pay little mind.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
