Working in my office I am rather insulated from the weather. Can't hear the wind or rain or see the sun, this is a long way to say that there isn't a window. Not to complain, it is a very comfortable closet and I don't get distracted by an external view.

I knew it wet (total rain fall was 3.07 inches ), I had been outside a few times during the day, but the wind didn't start in any kind of serious way until after I had settled in my office for the evening.
Leaving the dock was a bit of a problem, actually it wasn't leaving the dock, but getting turned around by the wind in the space between dock and rocks. There isn't alot of room there. I was thinking about just backing out, but decided that I could work my way around.

The wind hadn't built any waves to speak of, but there were white caps. The waves were low, almost flattened by the strong southeasterly wind. I thought that the wave height might increase as I went out toward Morne Island, so I went around the west of Breast island, what I call the Lighthouse way. I was also a bit concerned about plowing right into such a strong wind., I would need to go at a higher speed than I was comfortable with in the dark, as it was I had a tough time keeping the bow down so that the wind couldn't push it around. I had to slow down a number of times as the bow was getting turned by the gusts.
Had to turn the flood light off because it was raining so hard the light was just bouncing around obscruing everything outside the blur of light. I couldn't see the islands that I was steering around until I turned off the light.
Steering was a very active job, particularly once around Breast island. Keeping a given direction was a bit of a challenge and I was very happy that the engine cooperated. It was easy to imagine that the skiff would end up at the airport or on a beach at Kruzof in a very short time without power.

Getting into the stall at the dock was kind of a challenge, in fact slowing down enough to feel comfortable going between the dock and rock, also meant that the skiff was pushed closer to the rock than was comfortable. Decided after the second try to tie up at a spot that the wind would work with me rather than against me. Tied up the rather heavy fiberglass double kayak to the bull rail. Apparently the kayak isn't heavy enough to keep it from getting scooted across the dock.

There weren't many branches on the trail and I didn't feel compelled to run through the woods. I did hear one large crack, I assume that it was a branch.
At home the windows were flexing during the big gusts and there was a good breeze blowing through the one window that was redone in a less than adequate fashion.

The anemometer at home measured the following gusts: 52 mph 8:45 pm, 57 mph 9:25pm and
67 mph gust at 10pm. The airport measured a gust of 62mph. Looks like there were 3 gusts of similar energy between 10 and 11pm. I found a summary of the weather recorded at the airport. Yesterday's weather
On the walk to the dock this morning found 3 small (up to 16 inches dbh) dead trees across the trail. One of the trees was pretty close to where I heard the cracking sound last night.

	12/23/2008	12/24/2008	12/26/2008	12/27/2008	12/30/2008
Double Crested Cormrant		1			1
Pelagic Cormorant		2		1
Great Blue Heron			1
Mallard		3
Long-Tail Duck		3			4
Surf Scoter			23	7	8
White-winged Scoter		7
Barrow's Goldeneye	8	26	1		6
Bufflehead					7
Common Merganser				2
Mew Gull		2		1	6
Glaucous-winged Gull			3	2	2
Gull spp	2		6
Marbled Murrelet		10		1
Belted Kingfisher		1
Song Sparrow				1
Bald Eagle			3		2
Raven			2		1
weather etc	dark (8am), snowing hard	calm, west swell, 1pm	calm, 3pm	calm, 11am, some snow	very rough

The count on the 24th was a on a variation of the regular route. I went around the west side of Breast island (found the White-winged scoters) then dropped Deirdre off at the Litman's dock before returning to the main dock. The 10 marbled murrelets were on the east side of Galankin near Katz island.

january 1

Deirdre and I hiked from Herring Cove to Beaver Lake on January 1st. It was sunny and rather cold (max temperture 25F), and we had a late start so didn't often stop walking to look around. The trail was pretty quiet in terms of both people and birds. Did hear kinglets and chickadees in the canopy and crossed paths with two other groups of people. The trail was a bit icy in places, but most of it was crunchy snow which made walking relatively easy.
Picked up a lichen from one of the alders along the trail near the avalanche area. It is greyish green with soredia scattered over the surface. The lower surface isn't uniform in texture, there are areas without a lower cortex, a few rhizines and some tomentum. The lichen greens up nicely when wet. I haven't really taken the time to identify it with any degree of confidence yet.

We walked up to the lake and turned around, neither of us were too interested in walking the road back to the car. We had seen one dipper in the small creek at the beginning of the trail on the way up the trail. Didn't stop to look at it closely, just noticed it was there. On the way back down Deirdre and I noticed the ice on the small cascade, went to take a closer look and aroused 2 dippers. There was much scolding and both flew a short distance away. I did manage to get a photo. Not a brillant one, but what is more noticable in the larger version of this photo, is the yellow beak. I wouldn't have noticed the color of the beak without having taken the photo, so I guess it might be worthwhile hauling a camera around.

The yellow beak is characteristic of juvenile birds. Sibley 's Guide to the birds of North America says that the young of the year birds acquire adult characteristics by fall, if this is true for this area, this bird is woefully behind.

I haven't been able to find much more information about bill color in dippers, so well have to do so more careful observing. I really don't know if this bird was unusual or not.

I have looked at dippers once or twice on Indian River since the 1st.

Saw two dippers in the river. One with a dark beak was about 10ft from the first bridge. The other had a very yellow beak and was feeding in the flats where I have often found dippers.

Deirdre and I were thinking about making a trip to Indian River falls over Christmas break, we didn't get quite that far, but had a nice walk up past the first bridge and on to the muskeg. It was snowing most of the time, we briefly saw the Middle Sister from the muskeg before it disappeared in a cloud of white.
Based on boot depth estimates, the snow depth in the muskeg was about 8 inches , in the riparian area about 3 inches and in the transition scrub between muskeg and forest the depth varied from 3 to 5 inches.

We were pleasantly chatty, so probably missed some birds on our way; we did see Winter wrens, Song sparrows, Varied Thrush, Juncos and 2 Dippers. One dipper was just above the first bridge.

The snow seems to encourage alot of birds to congregate below the deck in the tangle of wild Oregon crab apple, Elderberry and Devil's club that grows below. There must be a reliable or substantial amount of seeds both from the feeder on the deck and the plants. The juncos and chickadees that visit the feeder also hang out down below. There are ususally Song sparrows scratching up food down there. Went down to look more carefully at who might be there (after being prompted by the bird list) and found a few Fox sparrows. I tend to go by the yellow bill, but their color is more evenly warm brown. Found 4 more Fox sparrows around the island, one pair by the lake and the other by the A-frame.