5 December 2020

 eBird stats:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S77110664

weather:  9 am 2C, wind calm  1 pm 8C wind WNW 6kph

tide:  11 am 4.6m, falling

I seem to have begun hibernation this morning--didn't wake up until 8 am.  There had been a hard frost overnight, but it was already warming by the time I left the house, and the frost was melting.  It was the first really foggy morning I've seen since moving here.  Still not really dense, but certainly limited visibility.  

 

That said, the morning had its own somewhat mysterious beauty.

 

 

The fog gradually parted, showing the Arrowsmith massif above a misty woodland.

The birds seemed curious to see me.  Sometimes they do seem to reciprocate my observing.

 

This siskin certainly seemed to be studying me...

 

and this towhee could almost be saying, "so who are you staring at?"  Towhees often look rather ill-tempered, and squawk to match their looks.

The Strait was very calm this morning, and at first, in the high tide, there were very few ducks to be seen.  I found their absence strange, after seeing hundreds of wigeons and mallards almost every morning.  The water reflected the high cloud and almost looked milky.

I sat, as usual, drinking a coffee, chatting with other folks who came by walking their dogs, and hundreds of wigeons flew in from the south.  I'm not sure where they'd been keeping themselves, and they weren't telling.

When I moved on, the river was still misty.

The dipper seems to have returned.  He's hard to photograph well.  Something about the reflected light from the river, I think.

He wasn't singing this morning.  I made my way upstream a bit, and think there may in fact be two of them.  They are usually monogamous, and there may be a pair here.   That would be fine to watch.  

Home to a late, large breakfast.  Rain forecast for tomorrow.