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The Daily Bucket - a hot day on the water [1]

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Date: 2023-05-15  

Auklets

May 14, 2023

Salish Sea, PacificNorthwest

The Pacific Northwest has had record breaking hot temperatures these past few days — high 80s — a radical change from our cooler than usual spring so far. Up here in the islands it hasn’t been nearly as hot as DownSound, as our temps run about 10° cooler in general, but it’s still a shock to the system. We went out in the boat yesterday. Much cooler on the water, but it’s notable I was wearing short sleeves. That’s rare.

Light breeze, surface almost glassy. Not a lot of birds on the water, most are embarked on nesting now or have migrated on. The ones who nest in local waters were the most abundant, like the Rhinoceros Auklets. We crossed paths with these three, close to the boat.



Snazzy breeding plumes

The resident Glaucous-winged gulls are gathering two by two on nesting islands and rocks, staking out spots

Quite a few recreational fishing boats out. Olympic mountains are visible to the south across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The air was a bit hazy. With the light north wind there might be some smoke wafting in from Canadian wildfires. Wildfires in May!

It was good to see there’s still quite a bit of snowpack in the Olympic mountains across the Strait and on Kulshan (aka Mt Baker). Snowpack is currently between 80-120% in Washington mountains.

The sealions are still all here, I counted about 100, their usual winter number. Shortly most will head out to the open coast for the breeding season.

One sealion is marked with the number 420Y. In the NOAA database he is recorded as born at the huge Rogue Reef rookery, which is where a lot if not all of these sealions were born, and come and go each year, about 800 miles away off the southern Oregon coast. 420Y is ten years old.

More birds —

Marbled Murrelets, in brown breeding plumage

Lots of Pigeon Guillemots. These breed in the Salish Sea.

Guillemots have the coolest bright pink-orange legs

A pair of eagles seemed interested in something on this island. A raven stood nearby too.

Blue camas is blooming abundantly there

On our way back to the dock we passed that same set of three Rhinoceros Auklets.

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THE DAILY BUCKET IS A NATURE REFUGE. WE AMICABLY DISCUSS ANIMALS, WEATHER, CLIMATE, SOIL, PLANTS, WATERS AND NOTE LIFE’S PATTERNS. WE INVITE YOU TO NOTE WHAT YOU ARE SEEING AROUND YOU IN YOUR OWN PART OF THE WORLD, AND TO SHARE YOUR OBSERVATIONS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PURPOSE AND HISTORY OF THE DAILY BUCKET FEATURE, CHECK OUT THIS DIARY: DAILY BUCKET PHENOLOGY: 11 YEARS OF RECORDING EARTH'S VITAL SIGNS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

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Sunny and hot in the PNW islands today. Calm wind. Daytime temps in high 70s, nights in 60s. What a change.

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