Overcast with rain. Temperatures in the 40s.
I didn’t get out until this afternoon. I had a call this morning, and then decided to wait until after lunch. The weather was more amenable to poking about outside in earlier, but I didn’t have the daylight to see if it might lighten up a bit.
Had I remembered tonight was a negative tide (with an atmospheric push, it got down to below -3ft), I might have been less motivated to get out in the rain this afternoon.
Probably brought down in a recent wind event, this hemlock branch was host for several epiphytic lichens, mosses, and liverworts
After a stop at the kelp patch pullout, I followed up on my desire to revisit a fallen hemlock branch I had checked out at the path of hope yesterday.
With magnifying lenses I was better able to see the various lichens, mosses, and liverworts on the branch.
Caurinus tlagu was described as a new species only a few years ago
I noticed a small insect on a lichen. It was still while I took photos. I recognized it as Caurinus tlagu, a species I’ve only found once before. That time it came out of a liverwort collection I had made. It was a nice surprise to find this one in the field.
I revisted the lichen that appeared to be infected by a fungus. Today I took better photos and made a collection, in case it ends up being useful for someone.
A comment I made in my 2017 photojournal for this day caught my attention. I noted were it not for the big year project, I probably would have just stayed inside. Over the past couple of years, since I decided I would make an observation each day, I haven’t considered the possibility of staying inside all day. Even when I had covid last summer, I went outside for a few minutes to make observations in the yard. I guess that’s the motivating power (for me, at least) of a streak.
I’ve not seen the Sandhill Crane at Moller Park recently. Nor have I seen any reports in ebird. The last report is mine from the 19th. Hopefully it’s just hanging out elsewhere for a bit, or has decided to move on. That seems nicer than the other likely possibility that a predator of some sort got it, or it has starved.
A bit of ice did remain on Swan Lake today, I guess maybe 25-35 percent of the surface. Five swans were there. I suspect ones that have been at Totem Park.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
