Mostly clear and cool. Some moderate gusty winds at some locations.
It was frosty this morning at my house. White frost covered the car and the ground. I was a surprised to see the frost disappear as I drove out the road for work this morning. The coldest temperature my car thermometer indicated was at my house. I think there may have been at least some inversion, since it was even warmer at the top of the hill by the Mormon Church. It was also significantly warmer out in Sawmill Cove.
The same was true this evening after I left from observing the in-water fill activity. My car indicated a temperature in the mid-30s at Sawmill Cove. Despite the clear skies it wasn’t frosty. That said, the ground was still frozen. Driving back into town, I first made note of the ground being especially frosty at Indian River. From there it was frosty to my house, where the car thermometer indicated it was 27F (about 10 degrees cooler than I had seen at Sawmill Cove).
I enjoyed the colorful sunrise as I settled in to observe.
Gusty winds this morning made for a chilly time observing on the dock. Before they really got going, I shifted over to the mouth Sawmill Creek. It looked less windy there, and the sun shone more.
It’s been interesting to see how much lower the sun is traveling across the sky compared to four weeks ago. Since I’m standing out there for so long, and making note of the glare on the water, it’s easier to notice the sun remains now behind some of the hills across the bay. The dock now doesn’t get direct sun until it moves far enough to show on the far side of Sugarloaf Mountain.
Once again, things were quiet in the cove for birds. I’m not sure where they’ve gone. Maybe it’s a result of the on-going work, but it didn’t seem to bother them that much earlier in the project when there was just as much work going on.
We were done observing shortly after noon, so it was nice to have time to get home and relax a little bit.
After lunch, I dropped off a print someone wanted to purchase, and stopped by Sea Mart then had enough time for a nap before going back out to Sawmill Cove for a shift of observing this evening.
I’ve been noticing two bright planets high in the sky. This evening I took a look through binoculars and saw moons around the brighter one. So I concluded it was Jupiter. The other is quite red, so I think Mars.
As expected, they were not doing too much actual dumping of rock into the water, but they did do some. It ended up wrapping up earlier than I had been told to expect. This time it was a different equipment failure. I didn’t get home any earlier, since I spent some time talking to the heavy equipment operator. I was curious about the system they use to place the rock. I learned there’s a whole 3d model that integrates in, and allows him to be quite precise about levels and grades, even with the large armor rock.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
