25 February

 eBird Data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S82329773

Weather:  8 am, 1C wind SSE 2;  12m 9C wind WNW 14 gust 27

Tide:  10:30 3.4m, rising

After 9 days with a gimpy knee, I finally made it back to the Estuary this morning.  Didn't quite manage the full circuit, thinking I should likely take it a bit easy, but it was a fine walk, and the weather was lovely.  It rained heavily last night, but by the time I set out it was sunny.  

The fields and paths were wet at first with glistening shrubbery.


Trees are budding out.

The merganser pond is free of ice (there were still frosty patches here and there along the way) and reflected the day.


Near the pond, I met up with a mystery.  

This is a perfectly ordinary junco, I think:


But it was singing something very strange:  "Tweet, tweet, tweet, whiss-KEY!"  over and over.  Never heard that from any bird before.  It was definitely the junco--no other bird nearby.  I wonder who he'd been hanging about with...

The view back towards the inland mountains was snowy and fine.



As the morning warmed up, the fields began to give up mist.

The Straits were brilliantly blue.  The white offshore looks like snow but is actually a sandbar with a flock of gulls.  


Making my way home, I took several shots of a Steller's jay.  I generally have bad luck with these birds, but this one is getting within range, I think.



They are handsome birds.

Arriving at home, I was decidedly aware of my knee, but after icing it and propping it up it seems to have settled down nicely.  Tomorrow is supposed to be dry and sunny but possibly a bit windy.  I'll hope for another day out.


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