Rainbow Views Working on Collections

Mostly cloudy with heavy rain and hail (or graupel) at times. Brief sun breaks between showers. Gusty winds.

It felt unexpectedly warm when I stepped out last evening. I checked and saw the official temp up had reached 50F and it occurred to me that it had been quite a while since I remember it feeling so warm.

It turns out the last time we had 50F was back last November on the 6th. The 135 day streak was one day short of top 5 all time. (The longest run at the airport was 162 days from early November 1950 through mid-April 1951.) The last time there was a longer streak was in 1972-1973. On the other hand, last year there was a 130 day streak from early December through mid-April (currently the 8th longest run all time).

Most winters we do see a push of warm air from the south at least once during the December to February period. This year, the high temperature in January was 49F, so it was close. Just not quite to 50F.

I also checked days without reaching 51F, and we’re currently tied for 11th all time at 139 days. Given the forecast, it seems likely this streak will make into the top ten, and possibly top 5. The all time record of 178 days (1950-1951) seems well out of reach, as it would require no 51F degree temperatures before April 30th.

Today’s temperatures were cooler, though still warmer than forecast at 46F.

I spent much of the day working through collections. I revisited the ones I worked on yesterday. I probably spent more time than it was worth extracting the Fissidens from the dirt. If the collection ever goes anywhere and someone else looks at it, it should be much easier, though.

I made it through two additional collections today, though one of them was a bit of a grab bag of liverworts growing together. That took a bit to sort out. Originally I thought I found three different things. After working through them, I realized two of them were both Diplophyllum albicans. As I learn to recognize things more readily, I will spend much less time on familiar species (unless it’s a particular nice looking example for photos). That should make it easier to process collections more quickly, but it could be a slow journey.

I did have a window to look out while I was working, and saw several rainbows as the sun mixed with showers.

I did finally make it out for a bit this evening. The wind was still blowing on the water, with white caps in Crescent Bay.

Had there been more daylight, I probably would have spent more than just a few moments at Sandy Beach trying to take pictures of the waves coming in. I could also see big crashes on the rocks further out, but didn’t try to get pictures. The buoy was up to nearly 27ft this evening.

The channel was quieter than it’s been the past few days. Connor said there were many gulls at the park this morning (when the tide was out). There were hundreds scattered around in or near the channel, but well down from the thousand+ I’ve been seeing.

Herring fishery went on two hour notice this morning.

My iNaturalist Observations for Today