Overcast with occasional light rain. Calm winds, temperatures in the upper 30s to low 40s.
Equipment breakdowns meant work was delayed. I didn’t find that out until around 6am. I tried to go back to sleep without success.
I didn’t mind having time to catch up on some other things while waiting at home to find out if/when they would need us.
Around midmorning I learned they would like us to start observing at noon.
As I was getting ready to go, I noticed dramatic looking clouds to the northwest. I didn’t have a great look, and if I had had more time, I might have gone to try for a better viewpoint (though experience has taught me that cloud formations often don’t last long).
Arrived a little early and spent a few minutes taking pictures of mosses on old concrete above the shoreline. There were other species there, but three seemed enough to start.
There were more Pacific Loons in the cove today. At first I counted ten. Later there were 20. When they were in the group today, they regularly called (which I think has been true on other days). I saw other birds swimming in 1-4 at a time. I wondered if maybe they were attracted by the calls?
Later in the afternoon it looked to me like there may have been even more loons closer to the Sugarloaf shoreline. I saw them flying in for splash landings, then later leaving with running splashing takeoffs.
Before I noticed the loons showing up, the observer along Sawmill Creek Road asked me if I could see all the birds going at the after. They were distant, but I could see at least 10 eagles and more gulls than that actively splashing down repeatedly. I’m guessing a school of fish was near the surface, but I couldn’t be sure.
Sea Lions made a brief appearance in the cove well before there was any pile driving.
I did enjoy keeping track of the dramatic cloud formations present for much of the time I was watching there.
They actually finished the last piling today. There will be no more observing work on this project.
Kent asked about gulls in Crescent Harbor. He had never seen anything like it.
Kent wondered if it might be a banner year for mussels. He said it was for barnacles on his boat. I hadn’t thought about fouling organisms having higher and lower abundances when it comes to settling out, but I guess it makes sense they could. Even so, I would expect it to take more than a year for mussels to attain very significant size.
Kent said the gulls were pulling the mussels off the black plastic below the main surface of the floats. Maybe they just recently figured out they can? Another possibility is something is different with the mussels – maybe they’re easier to remove?
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
