Mostly cloudy with light drizzle. Temperatures in the mid-30s.
When I first woke up, I saw blue sky and the sun was rising towards the southeast. However, towards the south and west a strong marine layer was already in place.
Some days the marine layer retreats, and other days it pushes in more completely. This was one of those kind of days.
By mid-morning it was completely overcast, and it stayed that way for most of the day.
I checked Silver Bay this afternoon. I counted at least 70 Common Murres. I saw a murre that was distinctly darker than the others. At the time I thought it was a Common Murre in transition, but looking at my (poor, due to distance) photos, I am not so sure it’s not a Thick-billed Murre.
I wasn’t sure about ice on the ramp to the dock, and since the tide was on the low side, I opted not to go down and watch the cove.
On my drive by, I did see several Pelagic Cormorants. It’s possible more birds were around, but I didn’t stay to find out.
Folks cleared snow from the ice to be able to skate. The weather has warmed above freezing, but I figured the ice was still thick enough to support me. I walked out and brought the hoop back to the pier.
A lone coot in the small patch of open water at the inflow was the only bird I saw at the lake. I watched it preening before walking out on the ice briefly. When I returned, the coot was in the water. It was unconcerned with me taking pictures. It even swam almost within reach. I did observe it eating. Despite there being some sedge blades that were green, I didn’t notice it eat any. Instead it broke off bits of brown dead material.
At Moller park many juncos actively fed among the bushes where I’ve spread some seed this year.
I hadn’t heard any reports of the crane in a few days, so I was a little surprised when I noticed it walking up towards my car.
I had my window down, and it seemed a little wary of me, especially when I shifted around or lifted up my camera.
Some folks have expressed hope that it will fly south because it will probably be difficult for it to survive he winter here. I agree about its survival prospects, but I think if it was going to do fly south, it would have done so already. I suspect it’s probably having trouble finding enough to eat. If that’s true, it will probably get weaker and less able to make a long flight south. I don’t know if anyone is putting out food that it will eat (in sufficient quantities), nor what it might be eating that’s around naturally.
As light faded, I checked the channel. I saw the most scaups I’ve yet seen this fall/winter. I counted 16, and as best I could tell most were Lesser Scaups. That’s a good number of Lesser Scaups, but I’m curious where the Greater Scaups are. Most years I think there’s a couple dozen or more around.
Another winter duck that’s been scarce around town so far this year is Barrow’s Goldeneye. I’ve come to expect one or two good-sized flocks somewhere along the road system. I’ve seen Common Goldeneyes in their usual small numbers, but that’s more than I’ve seen of Barrow’s Goldeneye. Connor said he saw plenty of them on his boat trip up to West Chichagof last week. For whatever reason, there’s just not a flock along the road system (at least not where I’ve been looking). [Update: They did eventually show up]
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
