On a Lifelong Journey to Learn my Place
Starrigavan Estuary at flood tide.
Connor has set up some bird feeders in the yard, and with recent snows they have been popular with the juncos and Pine Siskins. Pine Siskins are fairly aggressive with each other, and bold with humans. Both the kids were able to have one feeding out of their hand. I only got pictures of Rowan with one, but they got video of each other which I will try to post at some point.
Strong winds blew through last night. I hadn’t heard the forecast, but while walking downtown last evening definitely noticed how strong the wind was blowing. By the time I walked back home some time later, it was quite calm. I heard today that there were actually snow wheels at SJ where the wet snow had been blown by the snow and accumulated into wheel shapes as they rolled across the surface.
Winds were fierce through the night, topping out with 53 mph sustained winds on the 3:53 observation (81 mph gust) and a gust of 86 mph the 4:53 am update (though down to 37 mph sustained). The breeze was still quite stiff when the kids and I walked down to Totem Park later in the morning. Park trails were closed due to high winds, so we just walked down the beach a ways before heading back. The play of light as sun rays illuminated rain squalls through small gaps in the clouds. It might have been nice to get some video (straight or maybe time lapse) – but conditions weren’t so inspiring for hanging out in the open very long.
Later this afternoon I heard a report of a Red-throated Loon on Swan Lake. I made a quick stop at the lake and grabbed some pictures of it, but will write it up in a separate post.
I was up for the 8am sunrise this morning – was nice to see some good color in the morning sky. The day turned out to be quite pleasant – sunny with little wind (in town, anyway) and temperatures in the 40s. As one person I walked by said to me – “it’s the first unofficial day of spring.” Of course there’s almost certainly going to be plenty more cold/wet weather before winter completely gives up its hold, but days like today feel like a bit of a gift – the trick is not being disappointed when they don’t continue.