Clear skies. Calm to light winds. Temperatures into the 30s.
Today I realized the extra frostiness I noticed yesterday from Indian River on was in part due to those areas being more shaded. Driving out this morning, I saw frost on the ground out to Jamestown Bay. There was still very little from the top of the hill on, however.
Bird numbers continue to be down in the cove relative to a earlier in the project. My best current guess is the herring have moved out.
The whale hadn’t been Bear Cove the last two days, nor was it today. It (or another one) did swim into the bay. It moved through zone, and unfortunately we weren’t able to spot it leaving the zone (later the Bear Cove observer saw it further down the bay). It caused a one hour delay.
This evening was the Christmas Bird Count pre-meeting. I actually managed to swap out some photos, but then the program crashed shortly before the meeting began and I lost several of my changes (which apparently weren’t saved into the recovery file).
I had a late shift of observing, and drove back out the road after the bird count meeting. The temperature was in the upper 20s at the Raptor Center, but in the mid-30s at the Sawmill Cove. It was also a bit breezy, which could have been mixing down warmer air aloft?
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
