2008 April Observations · 10 April 2008, 12:11 by Julie Loyd
Photos will follow later. Since April isn’t over yet, these aren’t complete yet.
08.apr.01Snow! Glen R: 20:40: Heard Western Screech Owl by airstrip parking lot last night.
08.apr.02Glen R: 12:50 p.m. Saw Red Tailed Hawk slightly higher than treetop level Mail Pay pasturelands. 13:00 – 17:30 pm.: Round trip walk Farm Bay landing to Point Hammond. Clear, temp=52. Wind variable 2-12 mph out of N.E. Low tide 9:45 am=4.9 ft. Hi tide 2:45 p.m=6.5 ft. Lo tide 9:10pm=1.0 ft. In Farm Bay, saw approx 18 bufflehead, 9 goldeneyes, 4 gulls, 9 red breasted mergansers, 1 raven. At Point Hammond saw one eagle carrying something (could have been small stick bundle) to trees back from highest part of East bluff, and making a lot of screeching for some minutes. On shore: 9 harlequins in 2 groups, one of 4 on Pt Hammond Annex occasional courtship displays, mostly resting on rocks. Other Harlequin group fishing nearby in Huntley lagoon. Also at Pt Hammond about 9 gulls on rocks and one curious unidentified shorebird sleeping on one leg on Annex rocks: slightly bigger than robin, long legs. Gray head and upper body, white midsection to tail. Belly bottom black. Long, 2 inch skinny curved bill. Closest description in Sibleys is of a Black Bellied Plover. I have good video. Also from Pt Hammond could see about 25 harbor seals hauled out on Bare Island.
Between about shoreline fronting Farm Bay produce processing area and where the shoreline rough walking rocks S side of Little Hammond. Estimated shoreline coverage was 800 lineal feet. Conservative guess is saw approx 5000 – 8,000 juvenile salmon. Counted various ways. ½ of area had average density of 10 per lineal shoreline foot. Approximately half of area no fish. School sizes varied from 50 to 300 fish, with some larger schools continuous 100 yards long and sometimes in densities of 300 fish in 3 lineal feet of shoreline. Most were in water about 5-10 feet from shore and 1-2 feet depth. They did not like larger solid cobbles, but occasional rocks ok. Mostly they liked gravel. Only saw fish on walk out before high tide. Saw none on walk back which was a couple hours after high tide. Wasn’t sure whether they were forage fish when first saw. Used long handled dipnet to catch. Out of approx 12-15 net swipes at various places along this stretch: 10% of swipes empty return. 40% of swipes 1-2 fish. 30% of swipes 3-8 fish. 20% of swipes caught 9 to 50 fish. Looked at them in a quart jar, using 2 keys to sort out. Have video of fish in jar. All were salmon, no forage fish. Unaware of any mortality. Approximately 50% of the swipes returned only Pink salmon from 30mm (1 1/4 inch) to 50 mm (2 inch). Approx 10 % of swipes returned only chum salmon from about 50-65 mm. Approx 40% of swipes returned mixed populations of both chum and pink, with pink usually slightly more numerous. Also some larger ones in the mixed swipe collections, approx 60- 70 mm, could be juvy chinook. Parr marks about disected by lateral line, much larger than vertical height of eye, etc. As far as could tell, all fish had adipose fins.
Julie L: Frost in the morning. Robins everywhere. Daffodils, pink-flowering currant, maples in bloom. In the early morning, heard the Bandtail Pigeons (? – coo ROO coo, coo, coo) that live in the cedar grove behind our cabin for the first time this year.
08.apr.03Julie L: Heavy frost this morning. Sunny afternoon. Camilla found a miniature caterpillar at the school. Hummingbirds at Isa’s.
08.apr.04Glen R: 15:30 p.m about high tide. DD says seeing 1-12 inch salmon jumping in Severson Bay at B’s. This is the 4th winter in a row that this size salmon are there in Severson in March/April time period. I really tink they are Coho, as I have caught coho like this before when seeing ‘shaker’ salmon jumping. Severson Bay and Cowlitz Bay have had these sub-adult salmon the last 5 winters at least. I went to place at 5-7pm, in outgoing tide. Saw no jumping salmon. Did see a pair of Common Murres come by about 100 feet from shore, also a pair of Common Loons ranging 30 -300 feet from shore. 3 pairs of r.b mergansers came by shallows, heads down butts in air as they swam by back and forth about 30 feet from shore.
08.apr.09Julie L: Very light frost this morning. Ilsa Huntley found a Striped Nudibranch, or Armina Californica in the rocks by Cooks’ Cove. These molluscs lie buried on the sea bottom, (from the low intertidal zone to 250 feet deep) during the day and come out at night to feed on sea pens. So, we probably have sea pens off of Severson Bay.
08.apr.10No frost this morning. Nuthatches calling.
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