Friday was sunny and I thought she and I could try a couple of short forays into the outdoors. Was inspired by a great morning view of a very narrow crescent moon over peak 2975 and what I'm pretty sure was Venus over Eureka Mtn to the southeast. There is something especially pleasant about looking at the sky from a pile of pillows. Maybe it is just nice indulging my inner slacker.
There was a heavy frost on the ground which didn't disappear despite our impressively late start. We managed to leave the house around noon. Went out to Starrigavan, the eternal optimist in me always hopes for swans, but is seldom rewarded. We didn't see anything too exotic, but we didn't give it much of a look either, the cold out there was aggravating Deirdre's cough and I was feeling rather wimpy myself.
Next stop was Moller park, the sun was nicer. Deirdre was impressed by the number of Pine siskins and juncos at the feeder. Also saw a Tree and several Song sparrows at the feederand a Northern Flicker in a red alder in the survivors walk. She had enough energy for one last short loop walk on the Indian river trail to the Cross trail and back to the road. Nice to get outside even if for just short forays.
Deirdre left for Boston on Saturday, arrived there on Sunday and leaves again on Monday for Yucca mountain and Death valley via Las Vegas. Too bad the school doesn't realize that it needs a botanist on geology trips.
The feeder tree was at long last visited by a Golden crowned kinglet and a Brown creeper on Saturday, it is nice to be able to turn in something other than juncos and chickadees on the feeder watch report. Looked for the owl the last few nights, but didn't see it. The last sighting was Thursday evening.
Sunday noonish, Jeff and I took a short paddle to the runway area and Mermaid cove. There was a big swell, but very small chop (less than 1ft), only out between Rose and Mitchell Rocks did the water feel a bit intimidating. It was gnarly enough that I didn't want to go further around the airport. The sea conditions weren't that favorable for seeing birds. The skin on frame kayak is a joy to paddle or maybe its the wonderfully light paddle. I was using the mixed cedar paddle that Brian made. The kayak seems to skate over the water compared to the plastic one, I don't usually find myself in the lead in any kayak trip. It still feels very odd to feel the waves underneath the boat. The only thing that was a pain was trying to put the small spray skirt on with the layers of winter clothes I had on to keep warm. I was wondering if maybe I shouldn't have bought a small. Fortunately, once it is on, it fits just fine even over two windblock coats, but it was a bit of a comedy getting into the thing.
From the dock to the lighthouse saw a group of 8 Pacific loons, about 20 Barrow's Goldeneyes, 2 Buffleheads, several Common mergansers, 6 mallards, 2 Surf scoters and one Horned grebe. Paddled around behind Galankin to the Ferebee Rocks, 2 Glaucous winged gulls and about 50 Cormorants, mostly Double crested and 4 Harelquins. The cormorants were all on the rocks until I got too close, which is not very close. Continued on around the west side of the Beardslee islands toward the runway in search of alcids. Only one marbled murrelet and a couple of Mew gulls. Mermaid cove was pretty quiet as was the runway. More cormorants, 2 Harlequins and a Common loon. I almost talked myself into seeing a perched owl, but I'm fairly certain it was just a weird piece of wood. Paddling southeast from the cove was a bit of a steady work out. I was fairly convinced that if I stopped paddling, I'd end up on the runway. There was a mixed group of Surfbirds and Black Turnstones on the northeast shore of the southern most Beardslee Island. What was so nice about being in the kayak was that I heard the birds before I saw them. The birds weren't too worried about the kayk, I got close enough to have an excellent view without binoculars.
I've been trying to catch up with the bryophytes I collected last summer. The material I collected from a seep at 3200ft, collected in this case is a nice way of saying stuffed a clump of mixed bryophytes in a paper bag. There was alot of Lepidozia reptans, Diplophyllum albicans, a former Racomitrium which is most likely a Codriophorus, and a new liverwort for me, Gymnomitrion concinnatum. The drawing of Gymnomitrion in Schofield's guide doesn't really do it justice. It is a very small (about 10mm long), rope-like green liverwort. The stems are covered by the imbricate leaves. Each leaf was green at the base and hyaline from about mid way to the tip. The leaves are very shallowly lobed, the lobes have pointed apices. It was tangled in the lower stems of the Lepidozia and Codriophorus and I wouldn't have seen it except that I was being particularly anal about looking at the Lepidozia. The Liverwort Flora of the British Isles by Jean Paton was the only source of ecological information that I had access to at the moment. She has a rather thorough disscussion which I'll inadequately summarize: this liverwort is common on dry or wet areas of late "snow-lie" on mountain summits and slopes in Scotland and Northern Wales. Other than being on the wrong side of the Atlantic, it sounds like where I found it.
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