Occasional snow showers with considerable sun between. Light winds, temperatures in the upper 30s and low 40s.
Today’s snow showers had actual flakes rather than the graupel of yesterday. This morning a particularly heavy snow shower moved through while I was on a call. It was enough to stick to the ground, but without much accumulation.
Once the shower stopped and the sun appeared, the snow melted rapidly.
I went out to Sandy Beach this afternoon. The tide was falling, but very little sand was exposed.
I saw a Pigeon Guillemot off the surf break (no surfers, as the tide was not high enough). It’s the first I’ve seen this year.
I did walk along the upper shoreline. I checked out the fire pit where I’ve seen a moss that likes old burned wood. I found it there last year. It’s there, but the sporophytes were not yet fully developed. I’ll try to remember to revisit it later and see if I can get photos of it in a more mature state.
I was a little surprised to see a banana slug under a piece of wood on the old burn. It’s the first I’ve seen this year. I don’t know what might have attracted it out there, but presumably it crawled out recently. It’s hard to imagine it would have spent the winter there.
Liverworts had sporophytes up on an old log. It was difficult to tell what species produced them, but I think it was Lophocolea bicuspidata (in a broad sense). I brought some home to see if I can confirm.
As the tide fell and exposed more of the intertidal, crows went to work. I burned through hundreds of photos trying to get a good image (or even better, series of images) of them flying up and dropping shells to break them. In my initial quick pass, I didn’t see anything that stood out.
The salmonberries along Sandy Beach did not seem to be as far along as the ones I had observed along Sawmill Creek Road yesterday.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
