June 2007 · 4 November 2007, 11:39 by Julie Loyd
07.jun.early Don H: He saw plenty of fish, jumpers (which would be juvenile salmon), seals, and otters at his beach.
07.jun.04 Chris W: at 15:45 it was partly cloudy, the temp was in the 50’s, the wind negligible. She was in Phil L’s back roadway, slope west-facing, cedar woods. She saw a land snail in the roadway, moving along. The shell was a burnt orange color with some yellow, having black marks on it. The body was cream to light brown. “I once heard a rumor that these were brought to W by a resident, and that they escaped in the area of the old Mark Hayes house (near Bob Wood’s trailer).”
07.jun.07Unsigned entry at Cowlitz: Calm evening. Small fish dimpling water surface south of dock. Occupying a small area inside the Salient and Fairfield Four. Two Blue & white ducks also in area. Swallows.
Sunday 07.jun.10 Mike G: At Chuck L’s, around 13:00, eleven hummingbirds were swooping through the water from the garden hose. When he turned it off, they left, and when he turned it on again, they came back.
07.jun.11Glen R at Cowlitz: 13:15 overcast, 55º, wind <5 mph, water glassy. Saw no swallows at dock. Saw school of approx. 40 6 – 9” forage fish, possibly herring. Had incurled snout in 6’ of water north side of dock and south of float. Water too dark green and seaweedy to see below surface most places.
One Pigeon Guillemot 200 yards Southwest of dock, one at 200 yards north, 6 other seabirds unidentified, 300 yards and scattered.
Also 2 otters 100 yards south of dock near shore. As I observed for a couple minutes could see about 1,000 forage fish 90% sure they’re herring south of dock in 8’ of water.
07.jun.12 Julie L: 15:00 ish in Cowlitz Bay, cloudy and some sprinkles: Seven cm fish everywhere, not jumping but barely breaking the water, probably herring. Perch, about 25 cm, clustered at the bottom of the dock pilings. Barn swallows swooping around, resting on the dock railing not too far from us. An occasional violet-green swallow. There were several people at the dock, who noted a group of dark blobs in the water about a quarter mile off. With binoculars, they decided they were seals or more likely otters, not birds. I talked with some of the people:
Jim W: Hallie A says that the seals and otters around their place haven’t been around for the past two months. The young otters used to play on their patio. They probably moved to Jim’s beach.
Bill A: He is working on a talk about the economic benefits of environmentalism.
Stan W: At Mail Bay, the crows are harassing the raven.
Bill C: Several years ago at Thea’s, pigeon Guillemots nested on the bluff.
Gretchen W: Nowadays, huge amounts of cormorants nest on the south facing slope. Ron B’s son, an avid fisherman, consistently pulls ling cod out of the north tip of Mail Bay.
Glen R: identified one salmon and lots of herring in Cowlitz now.
David L: says there are more salmon, 5 or 6 inches long, further out.
Then the Ws, Bill C, Glen R and I joined Dr Tina Wyllie-Echeverria on the Coral Sea for three unsuccessful purse seines for juvenile salmon, near GPS N48º41.14’, W123º02.26’. We could see 10 cm salmon jumping here and there, but even when we encircled them with the net, they were gone by the time we’d pursed it, leaving only a very few other small fish.
The first pull caught ctenophores (comb jellies), an eelgrass isopod (ideothea), a 62 cm lined (or quilled? I can’t interpret my notes) perch, a 105 cm greenling, and a crab. The second pull caught ctenophores, one 7.4 cm shiner perch and two snake pricklebacks at 140 and 190cm.
While we were on the boat, two eagles were bickering over the nest snag partway to Disney, calling and flying around messing with each other. A third eagle on a snag higher up and closer to Disney didn’t participate. We also saw 1 kingfisher, 1 pigeon guillemot, and 2 crows. A Homeland Security helicopter flew across the island several times, irritating everyone.
15.june.07 Julie L: 10:30 – 13:00 to Hammond from R’s and back, light rain, minus 3.5 tide at 12:00. 2 or 3 barn swallows hunting along exposed seaweed along water, many more violet-green swallows at the grassy mound of Hammond. One gull chased an eagle at Hammond, no other gulls or eagles visible on walk. One or two distant crows. No seals, no otters, no cormorants, geese, ducks, seabirds visible. Last time I was at Hammond, I found a recently dead harbor seal. This time, there were scattered bones and a small amount of pelt left, pretty much in the same place as two weeks ago. At Cs’ beach, I talked to:
Marion H: When she was a kid they went to Skipjack Island and had to pick their way around the many gull nests there. The guy who flew the plane used to point out eagles eagerly when he saw them, but now there are a lot of eagles and barely any gulls. In the pools of water along the beach at low tide, which were deeper than they were today, they used to find lots of halibut babies. At the reefs between Skipjack and W they always could catch cod, but thought that seals were unusual and interesting. Now, there are seals on every exposed haulout and you can’t catch cod anymore.
Elaine C: The low tide has exposed all kinds of clam holes, which squirt as you walk near them. She hasn’t seen them this thick for years. Also, we found a couple of broken moon snail shells. There used to be a lot more of them.
07.jun.16: Julie L: Cloudy. David and I took the Murrelet and went around the island from Cowlitz counterclockwise around Disney, from around 11:00 to 13:00. Low tide was at 13:04, lowest of the year yesterday. Lots of Frazer River input, based on water color and conditions.
We tried to use the following protocol: From replicable GPS point, tow parallel to shore against current at trolling speed for 5 minutes, between 10:00 and 14:00, one replicate only. Use 12” hoop with 80 micron net, empty into 70% alcohol. We modified the protocol to tow from a permanent landmark instead because we couldn’t find the GPS.
First Tow: Cowlitz Bay 11:15 – 11:20. Starting point: tip of dock, ending point: 30 meters seawards from eagle nest towards Disney.
Notes: Current went from Disney towards dock. Sky overcast. No temp. noted. Water was a little murky. About 20 gnats hovered over the boat cabin during tow. Kingfishers at dock, 3 crows towards Disney. Small fish feeding at surface, occasionally jumping clear of water so we think that at least some were juvenile salmon. Lots of leapers in the moorage area. Our tow took us right through where the jumpers had been.
Second Tow: Mail Bay 11:45 – 11:50. Starting point: about 100 feet off B’s Point, ending point: boat ramp.
Notes: Very strong current in President’s Channel, tidal rip near starting point of tow. Current in Mail Bay clockwise. Sky overcast, no temp. noted, water was a little murky. Female duck in fucus covered rocks at B’s Point. A pair of pigeon guillemots towards the center of the bay. No fish activity observed.
Third Tow: Severson’s Cove, 12:04 – 12:09. Starting point: just past the second (west) moorage out from C’s Point, ending point: west of there near the next moorage.
Notes: Sky overcast, no temp. noted, water was a little murky. Strong west to east current. No fish activity observed.
Fourth Tow: North Bay, 12:22 – 12:27. Starting point: ball and orange mooring NE of Tibb’s roadend, ending point: Tibb’s road end. We caught a moon jelly with the tow but threw it back.
Notes: Sky overcast, no temp. noted, water was a little murky, largish plankton specks visible in water, .2 meter lion’s mane jelly. A single pigeon guillemot near the mooring, about fifty glaucous winged gulls along the beach towards Sandy Point, 1 or 2 crows. No fish activity observed.
Fifth Tow: Nature Conservancy, 12:45 – 12: 47. Starting point: Inside the Alexander’s mooring, ending point: TNC oak. We caught several eelgrass strands but threw them back.
Notes: Sky overcast, no temp. noted, water was a little murky. As we rounded Sandy Point, at least fifty gulls were gathered just on the south side of the Point. About 200 meters southwest of there, another fifty gulls were clumped on the water, excited and diving around. Their excitement gradually stopped and they were just swimming around by the time we started the tow. Another fifty or so gulls were scattered along the beach, fairly evenly, towards the dock, except for where a bald eagle was standing at water’s edge about a third of the way along the sand cliffs. Two great blue herons flew shorewards about two thirds of the way along the sand cliffs. We saw three kinds of activity at the water surface: Vee shaped ripples did nothing in particular. Lots of bubbles were clumped in a lozenge about 150 meters long and 3 wide, 10 meters out from shore, and circular ripples caused by little jumping fish, likely juvenile salmon, appeared in the bubbles.
Recommendations: Water, air temperature. Secchi disk. Salinity meter.
Monday 07.jun.17: Julie L: Cloudy. From 12:00 – 14:00 Dr. Tina Wyllie-Echeverria on the Coral Sea did purse seining for juvenile salmon, assissted by, among others, Mike Connor and David. Before the tows, David and I motored around in Cowlitz, looking for where the salmon were, but although we occasionally saw small groups, they weren’t feeding at the surface as they sometimes do.
I stayed for the first, unsuccessful, tow, in the deep water near the Disney cliffs, where there was a strong current flowing west to east. GPS: N48º40.781’, W123º02.581’. The air temperature was 16.4º, water temperature 11.1º near the dock and 10.3º near Disney. The surface salinity was 29.5 ppt.
I later heard that they’d caught a few salmon on one of their other tows.
07.jun.19: Bill A: As I was driving out our driveway which in reality is the Patten driveway, ahead of me was a young river otter. I followed it, driving slowly for about 15 yards, after which it turned off the driveway and headed toward the Patten mushroom. I can only guess that with Tom, Suki and family gone, the absence of Sparky makes it easier for the otters to approach the chicken yard. Just a thought.
07.jun.20: Julie L: Camilla and I saw 5 juvenile salmon, about 15 cm long, near the rocks under the Texaco dock in Friday Harbor.
Glen R at Cowlitz: 12 noon. School of 30 3 – 5” salmon south of dock, 60+ 4 – 6” perch, some hundred of 4 – 6” herring both sides of dock.
07.jun.21: Julie L: Showers in early morning, sun by midmorning: At the O-T beach, Java swam out to within 3 meters of a juvenile otter. A lion’s-mane jelly lurked in the shallows.
07.jun.22: Julie L: 14:00, cloudy with sprinkles: Peter, Camilla, and I walked to Disney. We saw a dead moth on the road near the H’s driveway, and a bald eagle at the Point. Wildflowers included tiger lily, death camas, sea spray, and the flowers illustrated here. The grass was already yellow at the Point.
Around 18:00 at R’s beach, no sign of fish, otter, or seabird activity.
Saturday 07.jun.23: Julie L: Scattered showers all day, warm. I went to Deadman’s Cove on San Juan Island around 12:00 with a group of 20 people who were looking at driftwood. We found cedar, yellow cedar, juniper, willow, maple, yew, and fresh madrone. Ten or fifteen whale watch boats surrounded a pod of orcas maybe half a mile offshore. One jumped entirely out of the water, but mostly they just showed their fins now and then. About 13:00, maybe 20 kayaks with one to four people in each arrived at the cove. Crowds decanted and ate lunch, but though the little cove then had over 100 people on it, everything seemed respectful and pleasant. There was virtually no plastic trash on the beach.
Coming in to Cowlitz with the Farmers’ Market women around 17:30 we saw bubbles and ripples in a thick, wide band from partway to Disney to past the rocks dividing the dock area from Frances’ Cove. At the dock, we saw that it was an enormous school of 10 cm fish, spaced maybe 15 cm apart from each other. We decided they were herring, because they looked a bit like salmon and not like perch, they touched the surface of the water but didn’t leap out, and they occasionally flashed a brilliant silver. There were bubbles everywhere the fish were. We thought that the bubbles were caused by a phytoplankton bloom that leaves a brief greenish froth in boat wakes and when you row. David dipped a cup into the water and retrieved some zooplankton which, without a microscope, looked like 1mm long segmented tubes with a single reddish thing poking at an angle from the front end that looked like a moth antenna. We preserved the sample in 70% alcohol.
Also in Cowlitz at that same time were a single gull and a Pigeon Guillemot pair. On the fucus-covered rock at the base of the P.O. hill was a very young, wrinkle-skinned seal pup, which eventually went into the water.
Later, around 19:00, at North Beach, I threw sticks for Java and the W’s dogs. There was no sign of otters, seabirds, or fish activity. The sun was behind clouds, shooting out dramatic white and yellow rays. Bicycling home along Sandy Point Road, I heard my favorite Swainson’s thrushes in the woods, but neither robins nor varied thrushes. Other birds twittered but I don’t know what they were.
Sunday 07.jun.24: Julie L: Rain last night, clouds in the morning. One cat brought in a juvenile rat, another two small birds with grey and yellow markings. In the afternoon, I talked to
Tony S: It wasn’t just that one herring fish boat that cleaned out the herring in the 60’s. There were at least three of them. Two of them would sit at either side of the bay to stretch the net, and you could hear their generators as they pulled net through the night.
Bruce G: There were a lot of seals just off their waterfront in the evening.
07.jun.26 Bill A: Today there is a seal pup on our beach, barely south of the Gs’ place. I went in there and asked Bruce to call Wolf Hollow (the only place I could remember), which he did. They said that they would refer his call to whoever actually does the animal extractions, but that the latter would wait 24 hours in case the mother came back.
John R: Close to dark, he was at North Beach and saw a group of eight otters swim towards Fishery Pt. beach. Soon, a group of four otters joined them, and finally, two otters swam behind. He kept counting to make sure there really were 14 of them. One of the trailing otters kept going in a zig-zag pattern from shore out to where the swimmers had been, then back, presumably hunting the fish that had been driven towards the shallows.
Wednesday 07.jun.27: Partly cloudy, about 70ºish. Going to Deer Harbor from Cowlitz at 11:15 saw one or two harbor porpoises. On the return trip, Pam M said they saw orcas, one with a baby and another breeching, from the ferry at Cypress Island.
07.jun.28 Hallie A, Mail Bay, 5 pm: 12 or 13 pigeon guillemots, and also but for a shorter time, 25-30 glaucous winged (?) gulls and only one porpoise (harbor or Dall’s) some distance off-shore east of the south end of our beach. Overcast sky, calm water, tide just past high and currents changing. The eagle resting on the snag on Linberry Point was motionless.
07.jun.29Fred and Donna A: Four of the swallow nests in their eaves have fledged and there are barn swallows everywhere.
Julie at Cowlitz: Swallows still here. 4” lion’s mane jelly in water. Rain in am, sunny now. Nordlund on beach at dock. Rabbits pop into the bushes all over the place. I came to look for fish but the water was too choppy and I didn’t see any. I scooped out a cup of seawater to test whether that would be a reasonable substitute for an informal plankton tow. The cup spilled a bit and by the time we poured the contents on a petri dish, there were only a chaetognath and two barnacle nauplii. I think the cup method would work if 1. you had a lid or a smooth ride and 2. there were lots of fish feeding on something specific and you wanted to know what it was. Otherwise, I guess we’re stuck with actual net tows.
07.jun.30 Julie: Low tide 12:06 noon. Sunny. 9:00 am Went to Hammond on COASST walk. Between R’s and Skipjack was a very small pileup of maybe 20 feeding gulls, and closer to shore was a feeding seal going towards Fishery Pt. As I walked towards Hammond, small amounts of gulls were on the water, crows were scavenging the waterline, and two Great Blue Herons were fishing in the shallows. Lion’s mane and moon jellies in the shallows and washed up. Kingfishers at the cliffs, swallows at Hammond. Two stray dogs were at Hammond as well, who followed me back to Fishery Pt. On the return trip, I went up Shawn’s driveway and the Swainson’s thrushes were calling everywhere. Back on the beach, two bald eagles had joined the crows at the H’s waterline.
Undated notes concerning Spring 2007 from a June 27 meeting:
A: There have been a couple of ospreys recently. Their wings are white underneath.
Ryan: There haven’t been any tent caterpillars at my place this year, and there were very few last year. I didn’t see their egg cases last year when I was pruning plum, pear, and alder trees.
Bill C: I had some tents in my fruit trees.
Ryan: I’ve seen no finches this spring at my place. I usually see purple finches around the water tank.
Janet R, Hallie A, Stan W: We have finches.
Bill: There are fewer nuthatches this year (general agreement).
Barry M: We have them at Glenda’s. I hear them in the morning and evening. They need a place where they can take a bath.
Stan: We have a flock of banded pigeons.
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