Heavy frost on docks, boardwalks, windows of skiff and car in the morning. The frost was still on the dock when Ian and I came home around 3:30.
Too sunny to be indoors all day, so walked to Alice Island and around the loop road. Don't really have to look at the channel to know that the Longtails are present. Their wonderful chatter is quite audible from the front porch of UAS. They were joined by a large flock of scaups (maybe moved over from Swan lake?), a few mergansers and pelagic cormorants. Found a Savannah sparrow in one of the willows along the road. Continued on to Alice island via the maintenace buildings. One song sparrow in the rocks just past one of the buildings. Also saw a Robin in one of the spruces in Millerville. Hadn't previously noticed that there is a chain and a no trespassing sign at the entrance . I'll assume that the sign only refers to cars.
Mermaid cove: Harlequins, Buffleheads, one merganser, 2 Pelagic cormorants, one Double-crested cormorant drying wings in the sun. 5 loons were foraging together in the cove. Still searching for clues on how to identify loons at a distance. They didn't seem quite as large as some loons I've seen, but it was a bit hard to tell when there wasn't another bird close by for comparison. Too far away to see any potential necklace or white eyebrow. I'm hoping that the gregarious behavior could be a useful character. The birds of Washington state web site describes Pacific loons as the most gregarious of the loons. They site describes Common loons are typically solitary. Does that mean that most of the groups of loons I see are Pacific loons? Is this one of those too good (easy) to be true sort of ideas?
There was a small flock of Black turnstones on the intertidal rocks. At least, they seemed like Black Turnstones by their sound. They were a bit far away to see well, the bright sunlight behind them didn't really help either. I listened to the recorded sounds on the Cornell site, the sounds I heard were much more like that of turnstones than the surfbird.
Probably because I was walking this time, noticed how many of the small roadside Sitka alders have green leaves. The leaves of most larger trees along the road are brown or shed. Effect of the heat absorbing pavement? Also found a Sitka Willow with many green leaves.
Commute birds: the morning was beyond quiet (2 pelagic cormorants), afternoon was a bit more active: 2 longtails, 1 common merganser, 1 Barrow's Goldeneye, 1 marbled murrelet and 3 pelagic cormorants.
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