Sightings

The weather guessers are predicting that the long clear spell we've been enjoying will be ending this weekend, so the toddler and I took advantage of the nice day with a quick trip to the beach.

Heading out the door we received a barrage of criticism from the male Anna's hummingbird who is aggressively defending his winter territory from others in the neighborhood.  The squeaky-hinge call of these birds is everywhere when you know what you're hearing, even if the birds themselves are so tiny and fast that you don't always see them.  Even knowing our resident Mr. Anna's is perched in his usual lookout at the top of the red elder tree next to the front porch, it can be tough to spot him.  We feed any hummers who make it to our kitchen window feeder throughout the winter and well into spring.  The Anna's have been overwintering here in the Puget Sound basin for at least fifteen years now, although historically their overwintering habitat range didn't extend this far north.  Climate change, or some other factor in the environment?

At the beach we spotted a cormorant fishing just offshore, but still too far out to determine exactly what kind it was. (Someday I'll learn to bring my binoculars with me everywhere I go!)  The toddler is currently obsessed with water in all its forms, and made a staggering bee line across the bands of seaweed covering the cobbles to get to the waves.  Keeping her from a full-body experience with Puget Sound diverted a lot of concentration from my usual fin search, but it was great fun watching her exploring the shoreline with both hands and no apparent concern for the cold water.  The tide wasn't out too far, but far enough to find a purple shore crab under a rock near the water's edge.  The toddler isn't quite old enough yet to be as fascinated with non-mammalian life forms as I am, but she gave it more than a passing glance before I carefully replaced the rock.

Our walk ended with a quick spin through a grassy lawn area in a nearby park, where we spotted an invasive eastern gray squirrel rooting among the fallen sweet chestnuts (also non-native) and checked out the lichens growing on the bark of an oak tree.  I suspect this particular tree is a Garry oak or Oregon White Oak given the timing of its spring leafing and autumn colors, but I'm not sure.  It certainly doesn't follow the same habits as the non-native oaks planted nearby.

Later in the day I learned that the SRKW spent the day in Admiralty Inlet.  Maybe the coming rains will lure them further south after the local coho runs.