Mostly cloudy, with a couple of breaks in the marine layer that developed and hung around for much of the day. Temperatures in the 40s, light winds.
I woke this mornign and it looked almost like there might be sun. As is typical for me when I don’t have a particular reason to get up, I went back to sleep. By the time I woke up for good, there was a marine layer covering the mountains down to below 1000ft. I suspect it had been fairly clear earlier.
I didn’t make it out until this afternoon. I had been considering where to go when I got a message about a potential unusual bird out Sawmill Creek Road. That settled the question for me.
The birds turned out to be White-winged Crossbills. A brief, atypical look (not up in the canopy), and unexpected bright yellow rump generated the initial mystery.
While there, I saw a Black Scoter down on Silver Bay. It’s my first this year.
I initially thought I might walk up Blue Lake road to look at a couple places I zoomed by on my bicycle while there Sunday. Instead I stopped to look along the roadside rock exposures along the main road before it gets to the rockfall zone.
I was only sort of surprised to find a fair number of things that looked unfamiliar to me. I’ve driven by this spot hundreds of times, but mosses, liverworts, and lichens require a bit more attention than can be given at 35mph.
I took it a bit easier physically today. I decided maybe my body could use a little extra time to more fully recover from prior efforts.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
