Mostly sunny through the morning, becoming overcast by later in the afternoon. Calm winds, temperatures in the 30s.
Kitty is nearing 1000 species for Sitka in iNaturalist, so we went out today to see about getting some species she didn’t have.
Although the Sandhill Crane was reported by someone within the past couple of days, I have not seen it at Moller Park for at least a week. It wasn’t there today.
Lesser Scaup (in the channel) and Peltigera neopolydactyla were easy pickups on Japonski Island (since I had observed both recently and knew where to find them).
I suspect this crow is one I've been seeing for over a year..
While at the channel, I got pictures of the crow with a deformed bill. I will try to remember to go through my photos of the last 1-2 years and see whether I can confirm that I’ve been seeing the same crow for that long. I first remember seeing one with a crossed bill. I think this is the same bird, though the upper part broke off.
It was cool in the shade, but a pleasant walk around the Estuary Life trail at Starrigavan.
There was a larger flock of gulls out on the tide flats than I’ve been seeing lately. The harsher midday light and the distance dissuaded me from working to hard to look them over.
Driving back towards town I spotted a whale blowing. I pulled off at Harbor Point to watch for a bit.
I was surprised to see a blow right along the shoreline below. Although the tail lifted up, I hopped out of my car in case it might come up again where I could see.
Moments later I noticed bubbles coming to the surface.
I had just watched a whale dive with tale coming out, so was surprised to see bubbles coming to the surface in a line moments later
They were followed by a whale emerging for a breath.
This surfacing also ended with the tail coming up.
I didn't see the first whale tail good enough to say whether this was the same whale showing its tail flukes twice in short order, or a second whale
I’m uncertain whether it was the same as the first whale, but given how close they were and the fact that the tail came up both times, I’m leaning towards thinking they were different.
I’ve not often been in a position to see what’s going on in the moments before a whale surfaces. I know when bubble feeding bubbles come to the surface before the whales do. I am curious if what I saw this time is something that happens during regular surfacing-to-breathe cycles, or if it was not typical (and if so, why was the whale doing it?).
We had five at ultimate this evening. Conditions were calm and chilly. We tossed a disk around for awhile, but no one was feeling too ambitious about playing a small game, so we called it good at playing catch.
After yesterday’s hike, I wasn’t going to be surprised if I felt sore today. I did feel a bit stiff, but no real soreness.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
