Partly sunny with temperatures in the 40s. Light to moderate winds which seemed to be out of the northwest.
It is Great Backyard Bird Count weekend, and Kitty wanted to do some counting.
We made a loop of the Estuary Life trail at Starrigavan.
The tide was rising, but still below the level of the estuary pool, and some gravel bars remained exposed on the bay side. We saw decent numbers of birds. I saw three year birds among them – Northern Shoveler, Hooded Merganser, and Herring Gull.
Driving back into town, I was just passing Kerr’s Island when I noticed a dark bird that caused me to stop. It dove as I did, but I drove back to the pull out to watch. When it came up, I saw it was a Horned Puffin. I don’t think I saw one of those last year.
The weather was too pleasant this afternoon to work on stuff inside, so I headed out again.
I watched the north end of the channel, in case any alcids may have moved in there. It’s been a decent spot for finding them this time of year, but I did not spot any this year.
I also spent 15 minutes or so watching from the big pullout at Silver Bay. A mixed group of diving birds suggested there was a school of some sort of fish.
There were two species of cormorant, two species of merganser, and Pacific Loons all in the mix. Two or three sea lions were in the water near shore below the pullout. They apparently were unaware or uninterested in whatever the birds were going for.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
