Blog of the Plague Year(s)

22 June  eBird data:   https://ebird.org/checklist/S142383343  weather:  9:00 am 15C wind 5km,   1:00 pm 20C wind calm overcast tide:  11:00 am 2.7m, falling 23 June eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S142478290  weather:  9:00 am 18C wind NW 8, 1:00 pm 23C wind N7, clear tide:  10:30 am 3.3m, falling Two days of young birds!  And others as well, but some nice encounters with newly fledged kiddos.   Slightly ominous weather on the 22nd and glorious sun on the 23rd.   A flock of ducklings on the channel along the Nerbus path, already well-grown.  Didn't get a photo. A day after the Solstice, the light and vegetation said "Summer" in undeniable terms.   The ocean spray bushes are in full bloom.   In the distance is the M5--I thought she was a big boat.  As it happens, yes, she's the world's largest single masted sailing yacht, at 77.6 metres (254 feet).   Qui...

8 june eBird data:   https://ebird.org/checklist/S140913800 weather:  8 am 19C wind NNW 2, 12:30 pm 21 C wind ENE 12, clear, smoke tide:  10 am, 3.7m, falling 9 june eBird data:   https://ebird.org/checklist/S141006834 weather:  10 am 16C, wind calm;  1:00 pm 16C occasional showers tide:  11:30 am, falling 16 June eBird data:   https://ebird.org/checklist/S141754248 weather:  8:30 am 15C wind calm,  1:00 pm 19C wind ENE 9 8 June A high tide, falling, and smoky air from a nearby forest fire. The fire isn't near enough to threaten coastal towns, but it has blocked the highway that leads to Port Alberni and the towns on the west coast of the Islan.  By all accounts the highway is likely to remain impassible after the fire is extinguished, due to fallen timber and rock.  This will pose a real challenge to those communities, both in terms of access to food and fuel deliveries, and to tourism--a very big part of their ...

29 May eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S139800478 Weather:  8:30 am 15C, 1:00 pm 15C clear Tide:  10:00 am,  2.4 m  turning 3 June eBird data:   https://ebird.org/checklist/S140358221 weather:  10:00 am 18 C, 12:00 m 18C, clear tide:  11:00 am 0.7m, falling 29 May A clear morning and a very low tide. The first willow flycatcher of the season showed up on the same spot as it spent much of last summer. The black-headed grosbeak was in fine voice. As the snowpack vanishes from Mt. Arrowsmith, the river is beginning to fall. On my homebound path, I watched a very busy downy woodpecker. The fact that downies are much smaller than the otherwise similar hairies ("Downies are dinky;  hairies are huge.")  is often described as making it difficult to distinguish between them.  (Hairies aren't really huge, just a lot bigger than downies.)  This picture shows two of the other markers of a downy--a relatively short beak ...