13, 15, 16 March

13 March 

eBird data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S104764413

weather:  9:30 am 6C wind calm  12:30  7C wind E 12, cloudy, then scattered clouds

tide:  11 am 3.5 m

15 March

eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S104890225

weather:  9 am 5C wind ENE 2, 1 pm 10 C wind SW 3,  unstable, cloudy, intermittent showers, intermittent sunshine

tide: 11 am 3.2 m, low, turning

16 March

eBird Data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S104951468

weather:  8:30 am 0C, wind calm,  12:30 m  8C wind E 6,  patchy frost, clear then gradually cloudy and light rain

tide:  11 am 3.1m, falling

13 March

The weather is warming up gradually, although the skies often remain ominous.  I set out late this morning, because the forecast was for the early morning rain to abate by mid-morning.  Indeed it did.


I've been seeing this strange rabbit, clearly domestic, wandering the neighbourhood.  I guess it's angora?  Its fur is gradually becoming more disheveled.  No one seems to claim it, poor strange little creature.


There are now the beginnings of blossoms in the Estuary lands.

One wild plum tree is now in bloom,



and the early showing of skunk cabbage.

The tide was relatively full, and there were many gulls well offshore.  The duck contingent was not really in evidence, and low cloud obscured the Gulf Islands and the Coast Range.


A  disheveled juvenile Cooper's hawk appeared to have been caught in the early rain.


To my considerable delight, the eagles seem to be settling onto their new nest.


From size and the hefty beak, I'm assuming this is the female--both male and female will spend time on the nest, although the female spends more time.  Incubation is about 35 days, and I'm assuming that the eggs are now present.   It's an excellent vantage for watching the nesting behaviour and then the hatchlings, as they're in a large maple just across the river from the trail, with nothing to block the view.  Presumably they have a good view as well of ducks and other edibles.

15 March

Real March weather--changeable.  I set out in cloudy weather, then gradually a front seemed to open behind me and move toward the southeast. 

 
After a wildly windy day yesterday, the Salish Sea was flat calm.




Although it's still quite chilly and unstable, the world is definitely leafing out.


The leaves on the elderberry bushes seem to have appeared overnight.

Spotted towhees are abundant here.  This one sat and watched as I drank my coffee.


There seems to be a debate about pronunciation:  Toe-ees, as in the 5 things on each of our feet, or TOW-hees, and in "OW, I stubbed my toe."  I grew up with the former.  

16 March

A nippy morning, which started sunny and faded.  But a good walk.


I cut across into the woods in hopes of finding the Great Horned Owls nesting.  Not yet, it seems.  According to Cornell University's Birds of the World website--about the best I can find--GHOs don't typically use the same nest from one year to the next, unless they have an exceptionally sturdy nest that they've set up in the crook of a tree or in a broken off tree top.  This sounds to me as though I might find the owls nesting in the same place as I watched them last spring--it was a very sturdy looking nest.  My usually reliable naturalist with the Nature Trust seemed to think we'd find the owls in the same place as well, and he's pretty good.  

Anyhow, no owls yet.  I'm hearing them at night and sometimes when I'm walking and it's definitely two of them communicating, one with a deeper hoot and the other something of an alto owl.  

Still, it was beautiful in the woods, as the sunlight and new growth gleamed.


Emerging into the fields, I heard trumpeter swans--unmistakable, and yes, there was a flight of about twenty of them, headed north.




As usual, I stopped for coffee and took in the view, always different.  


Today both eagles were on the nest--



it's quite a small nest for two such big birds.  I assume it was a shift change--after a while, one moved up to a nearby treetop.  But they do make a handsome couple.

Brooming tomorrow, if the forecast rain doesn't materialise.



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