Clear and cool. East winds blowing out of Sawmill Cove.
I wasn’t expecting clear skies this morning, but clear they were. I had window scraping to do when I headed out before sunrise. A heavy glaze of ice suggested that skies cleared not long after the last precipitation fell overnight.
I stopped briefly to take pictures of the thumbnail crescent moon.
Today was supposed to be short. The pile driving itself took less than an hour.
However, a Humpback Whale that decided to spend a good chunk of the morning in and near the shut down zone resulted in about 2 hours delay before any pile driving happened.
During the delay, it was mostly closer to the outer parts of the 2km shutdown zone. However, at one point it came right into Sawmill Cove, surfacing near where the outflow from the hatchery comes up.
It left for long enough that the one pile with a lot of driving to do was completed. As that wrapped up, the whale returned for another hour before the remaining driving could take place (a total of <15 minutes driving the other three pilings a little further).
There were also more sea lions today than I’ve seen in the prior week combined. Perhaps they’ve been scarce since the Killer Whales were around (no sightings of them today), or maybe they moved in for the herring. Several of them spent the entire delay time in Sawmill Cove. They disappeared right after the soft start for the impact hammer (which is part of the reason for the soft start).
With my attention largely on watching for the whale, I didn’t pay as much attention to the birds today.
The gulls seem to have discovered the impact pile driving results in dead herring. More of them were in the cove than past days.
On the other hand, I didn’t notice as many diving birds in close.
I did see more murres today, including one that was a Thick-billed Murre or a Common Murre still in something close to summer plumage.
We finally wrapped up not shortly before 2pm, and I stopped by the channel before heading home. Gulls were scarce, and the ducks were father out than I wanted to photograph.
I took pictures of starlings (to pad my iNaturalist observations for the day – I couldn’t remember what all I had taken pictures of at the cove).
Thanksgiving dinner consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. Connor did the turkey and stuffing. Rowan cooked the potatoes, and I mashed them. I also made the cranberry sauce.
It’s not an especially diverse meal, but it’s the food we most like to eat, so it works for us. No work tomorrow. This is handy for me since Saturday is the Christmas Bazaar, and I haven’t had much time to get ready for it.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
