Life on the Outer Coast

On and off heavy showers today, the wind has turned to the southwest so perhaps this bit of weather will ease up this evening.

This morning as I was driving under the ramp at Crescent Hbr, I heard a flicker call which seemed a little out of place. Mostly out of place because it was loud enough that I could hear it over the engine, so I assumed that it had to have been quite close. As I turned the skiff around I saw the flicker perched on the dock rail near the bottom of the ramp. The flicker cooperatively stayed put as I tied up the skiff and walked down the dock toward it. Instead of flying away as I approached, the bird started hopping up the ramp. Looking up, I noticed another flicker perched on the life jacket box watching the hopping flicker. As I watched the hopping bird, it went up the length of the ramp, as soon as it reached the top, the perched bird flew down to it. I couldn't quite see the interaction, but there wasn't any audible noise associated with it. They both flew off when I was about 3/4 of the way up the ramp. I've seen several flickers in the green strip by the harbor, but never on the dock or ramp.

Transplanted the muskeg swale soil plants today in 175g of autoclaved sand and soil (1:1 mix). Unfortunately we ran out of sand to transplant the hummock soil plants, so I'll have to complete the task tomorrow. The good news was that I made it out to Sandy beach in time to be able to collect sand. Hopefully, Marty will autoclave the sand this afternoon. It was time to transplant, the wheat roots were just starting to grow through the bottom of the dixie cups.
I'm seriously kicking myself for forgetting to surface sterilize the seeds, I may just start another round of the bioassay next week. I did set up controls, but why wait to find out that there is a problem. I'd like to use growth tubes instead of cups to cut down the total soil volume and use all diluted inoculum soil instead of going through the dixie cup step. I'm also fairly certain that I'll want to run the bioassay again in the late spring because I'm worried that the fungi will less active this time of year even in warm conditions. All of this second guessing reminds me intensely of my master's research... I was a bit more focused and careful then (and highly motivated to finish). At least I didn't forget to sterilize seeds, considering the amount of time it took to set up and grow my experiments, it was a good thing. Focus, I'm not so sure about, but I can be a bit more careful. I'm patiently waiting for a nice day to return to the cedar epiphytes project. I need a long afternoon to get enough trees to feel comfortable about a stand sample. Maybe "scattered" is a better descriptor of my behavior.

Briefly chased a report of a yellow-rumped warbler on Alice Island (it might have been on Japonski). Carla and Tedin saw one Sunday on one of the islands. I was fairly certain that Carla meant Alice, but now I'm not so sure. Might be worth a call. No warblers, but there were Savannah sparrows.

Passed a sea otter between Morne and Galankin Islands on my way home. Only the second one I've seen in the islands.