October 2007 · 3 November 2007, 13:27 by Julie Loyd
07.oct.01: Julie L: Clouds, light rain. 14:00 took the school kids to the rocks at Appel’s Beach. No birds or mammals. Blackberries are still edible at Zeo’s.
Peter A: Photo from plankton count for Oct 1, Cowlitz Bay.
07.oct.02: Julie L: 18:00, dramatic light, sea slightly choppy, air slightly chilly. Plankton tow at TNC and Cowlitz. Critters seem less numerous but larger than in Sept. David saw herring earlier today, and says that recently, he’s been noticing an oily sheen when they feed. Is it herring poop?
07.oct.03: Glen R: 13:45 to 16:30, Farm Bay Landing to Point Hammond round trip walk. Temp approx 52 degrees, wind @ 10 mph. Overcast, occasional rain showers. Gale force winds last Sat night into Sunday (Sept 29 – 30). Rain off and on, sometimes continuous today, predicted through weekend. High tide about early afternoon. Before Otter Pt (this is the Otter Point that’s also called Little Hammond) saw nine Surf Scoters, two Double-crested Cormorants, two Pelagic Cormorants, one Western Grebe, one smaller grebe, 30 Heermann’s Gulls, 40 other gulls, two Common Loons.
At Otter Point one male Harlequin Duck 10 feet from shore. In Otter Cove two Harbor Seals, one River Otter came by. Three other mergansers in Otter Bay. About 90 cormorants on Bare Rock (saw various ones fly off and come by me). One heron at Point Hammond, two Kingfishers in both Otter Cove and Farm Bay. On return walk saw pair of Yellow-billed Loons out from Glacial Comp rock in Farm Bay.
07.oct.04: Julie L: 16:00 Walked from G’s to B’s beach in brilliant sunlight. The sand, which had washed away recently leaving a step, is now back. The whole beach seems to be freshly carpeted with sand. The high tide mark is right up to the vegetation in places. All the way to the Chev’s, there were scattered dead trees and bushes at the border between forest and sand.
I met Marty and Mitch C at their point. One of them said that the herring left abruptly years ago, and there haven’t been any since. He remembered that when he was a kid, they could jig for herring any time they wanted a meal. I said that I’d heard that around 1965, the Blue Pacific fished in Cowlitz repeatedly until all the fish were gone. “Yeah,” he said, “I fish on that boat. We go up to Alaska for the herring.” He said that the old skipper is still living in La Conner or Mt Vernon, and that his son is now skipper.
Pileated Woodpecker on the snag by the front entryway at L’s.
07.oct.05:Barry M: At the Farm Beach, pair of Yellow-billed Loons.
07.oct.05Julie L: Sunny, but the wet of the recent rains is very evident. Around home, the last of the dragonflies flit around in the clearing. Those little black spiders are darting around, the cats are hunting grasshoppers/cicadas, and you can hear single frogs here and there. Lots of twigs have spiderwebs on them. The maple leaves are yellow and falling, the alders are still green, the squashes in the garden are huge. No frost yet.
07.oct.07Julie L: 16:00, brilliant sun and wind after rain. Went to Sandy Point through the A yard, where a flock of 50 Canada Geese were settled. The beach had a thick rind of ulva wrack, bleached tan and black at the top half of the beach, and still moist and green at the lower half. High tide had gone up nearly all the way to the sand cliffs. Lots of yellow crab molts and jingle shell. A flock of about 300 mixed gulls at the tip of the Point.
07.oct.08Julie L: 14:00 went to S’s Cove with the schoolchildren on a shell scavenger hunt; cool, breezy, sunny. There was a lot of sand on the beach, but not as much wrack as on the south side of the island. We found remains of: Moonsnail (Polynices lewisii), whelk, purple varnish clam (nuttalia obscurata), cockle (clivocardium nutallia?), Pacific oyster (with purple in the depths of the ridges), Ice-age scallops from the cliffs at Hammond, Dungeness crab molts and yellow crab molts, chiton (Katharina tunicata?), green abalone, mussel (Mytilus edulis), barnacle, limpet, various clams, some with holes drilled in them near their hinges, worm shells, bird bones and feathers, and a buffalo sculpin skull. A thin-shelled clam shaped like a razor clam but smaller might be a Fan-shaped Horse Mussel (Modiolus rectus), or a Jackknife Clam, but don’t quote me. Missing were scallops and periwinkles, though we have seen live periwinkles on the C’s rocks.
17:00 Uncovered a fat 1 1/2” green chorus frog when I moved a rotten log. Later found a wandering garter snake coiled up beneath a log.
20:00 Helped Isa move hay indoors in anticipation of the rain predicted tomorrow and found a coiled garter snake in her hay. Also a male goat.
07.oct.19Julie L: 15:00 At Deer Harbor Dock there was a tight school of about 3,000 3” fish that were probably juvenile herring, floating near the surface between the float and the dock. A fisherman noticed them and said he was happy they were back. They were gone for many years. He used to catch herring as salmon bait. In the winter months for three successive years in the late ’80’s, he used to catch kings, about 180 total, using herring as bait. The biggest one was 26 pounds.
16:00 At Cowlitz, it was slightly breezy, with rippled but perfectly clear water. We saw no fish around the dock.
07.oct.20Julie L: 17:00 Sunny in the morning, rain in the afternoon. The leaves have fallen entirely off of some maples, but most still have about half. Our clearing is covered with fresh new grass. A single frog is croaking. Some of the rounds of wood we haven’t yet split and stack are fuzzed with mold.
07.oct.21Julie L: 12:00 Cowlitz: cloudy, light wind, murky water. A school of 2” – 6” tubesnouts (?) surrounds the float.
07.oct.22Julie L: 13:00 Walk to Sandy Point with school children and Tony S; cloudy, brisk wind, murky water. A Bald Eagle in a Doug-fir top just before the Point. Someone had left the remains of four mouflon, including heads and guts at the Point, but we didn’t see any scavenging birds except the eagle there. Yet.
Lots of fresh wrack; kelp, various other algae, crab molts, purple varnish clam shells, other clam shells, and the green jingle shell mussel. At the Point, a flock of about 100 Heermann’s gulls, mixed in with other gulls, both juvenile and adults. The Heermann’s were relatively fearless. While the other gulls ended up swimming in the water when we approached, the Heermann’s eventually flew back and settled about 10 – 20 feet away from us, facing into the wind and looking sincere.
Peregrin B found a Rufous-sided Towhee that died against the school’s window. We also collected a few mushrooms growing around the school, including one with a stringy stipe and a lurid yellow cap with grey tinges. The spore print was whitish. Mushrooms are everywhere.
Josie S brought a sexton beetle that she’d found covered with 40 or 50 small red mites. In Haggards’ Insects of the Pacific Northwest, they say that mites can be parasitic, but that some carrion beetles have a symbiotic relationship with their mites, carrying them to the carcasses where the mites eat fly maggots which might compete with the beetles’ larvae.
Pam M saw another sexton beetle at her house. She kept it in a jar for a few days, and on the second day it was suddenly covered with red mites.
Glen R at Cowlitz Dock: 14:00 temp high 50’s wind <8 mph, overcast, been raining lately. Some few hundred fish by float 6 – 8” long, thin tubesnouts? sand lance? Tide coming in. Two pairs Horned Grebes came by, three cormorants on boat, one kingfisher. – Glen R
07.oct.23Julie L: 11:00 Walk to Pt. Hammond; sunny, no breeze, very clear water. At Point, a chirping Bald Eagle, a Great Blue Heron, a flock of 8 shorebirds, a flock of 7 ducks, and scattered gulls. Kingfishers. The sand level is very high compared to recent weeks. Fallen trees that I used to duck under had no room underneath and I climbed over instead. From the rocks at Hammond over to the deep side, you could see all sizes of perch, from 3” to about 12”. Also, purple sea stars, sun stars, a sand dab, and a Dungeness crab.
Josie S: There’s a dead female White-winged Scoter (_not_ a Scaup as I previously wrote) near Cowlitz dock. These migratory birds dive after shellfish.
07.oct.24Glen R: 10-24-07: 15:50 to 18:10 round trip walk Farm Bay to Point Hammond. 60 degrees (Friday Harbor 67º at 3 pm). Clear. Wind <2 mph. Rain coming tomorrow. Water glassy. High tide at 16:30. Full moon in 2 days. Many termites flying. Been seeing flocks of 30-150 Snow Geese flying over island from Northwest to Southeast the last few weeks, from various island spots, and even at night.
Barry reports hearing loons, Western Grebes, Common Murres at night at from Farm. Nine Canada Geese hanging out in orchard last two months. Chestnut-backed Chickadees around the house there last month.
On walk, out from Oyster Rocks, nine Red-Breasted Mergansers, two pair of Buffleheads, one pair Goldeneye, five Surf Scoters. A pair of Harlequins grooming on rocks at Otter Point. Out further 7+ Horned Grebes. Two cormorants. A few unidentified gulls.
At Point Hammond heard Bald Eagles from Huntley Point. At Hammond’s annex rock saw ten gulls, one Great Blue Heron, two Black Turnstone, three River Otters all hanging out within 30 feet of each other. Three Harbor Seals visible from Point Hammond. Through binoculars saw 50 birds on west finger ridge Bare Rock, saw various groups fly off, Double Crested Cormorants. At dusk saw 60+ crows heading into Huntley Bay cliffs. On way back saw one kingfisher by Glacial Comp Rock.
07.oct.25Julie L: First frost, very light.
David L: Mild outflow from Northwest, shifting to North. 17:30 Cowlitz: The first sunny day after a string of cloudy days. Clear, sunny, calm in bay, clear water. A zooplankton bloom on the surface attracted fish which attracted tern-like birds. There was a ball of them about 3/4 of the way to Point Disney, and others scattered along the drift cell line that defines the Cowlitz embayment. Presumably, the plankton would be washed towards the dock and remain captured in Cowlitz.
19:00At L’s, a bird flew overhead mobbed by a small flock of crows. It had a unique, resonant triple hoot, somewhere in the high tenor or alto range. Small russula mushrooms have sprouted here and there. Our maples have lost all their leaves in the last few days but their pods remain.
07.oct.26Julie L: Second frost, heavier than yesterday but still light.
17:30 Cowlitz, 2” – 6” tubesnouts? scattered everywhere. A small flock of mixed gulls and other birds were fishing.
22:00; moonlight, water clear at Friday Harbor dock, lots of shrimp darting around at the water’s surface. At Cowlitz later on, we looked for shrimp but saw none.
07.oct.27Julie L: At Lopez Citizen Science meeting, Russel Barsh talked about what we know and want to know about local juvenile salmon, Anne Beaudreau talked about Lingcod and gastric lavage, and I talked about our developing beach seine technique. A fisherman asked if we’d ever caught shad. He said that they are in southern waters and the Columbia River but last year a reef fisherman on Lopez caught a few. This year, that same fisherman caught I think it was three tons.
We briefly discussed the return of fish in larger numbers to our waters. In Cowlitz, is it due to our replacing creosote pilings with steel? Elsewhere, is it due to less fishing pressure? Anne said that Lingcod are larger in the reserves near Friday Harbor Labs and that they catch larger rock cod in the reserves. Russel said that on the East Coast, fishermen showed him that the stomachs of the Atlantic cod they were catching were empty, and shortly afterwards the cod fishery crashed completely. He thinks this has something to do with the response to discovering that the cod were getting fished out. They switched to fishing for less desirable species, which happened to be fish that the cod eat.
07.oct.29David L: Massive school of tubesnouts (?) under dock/float, 12:30 – 13:00. This is an unusually abundant year, though there has always been a school of them at the dock.
Glen R at Cowlitz:13:00Temp 55º, wind <2 mph, overcast, Four (two pair) Red-necked Grebes, 12 horned Grebes. 5,000 – possibly 15,000 5 – 7” tubesnouts? around float, grebes coming after them. Glen has video.
Julie L: 14:00 took schoolkids to Cowlitz float, clear, clear water, 55ºish, no wind, water rippled. Tubesnouts? unbelievably thick at float; we debated whether there were thousands or billions (I vote for thousands). When we arrived, they were at the surface, but dropped down to about 3’ below. Gulls, things that might have been terns, and a pair of smallish Grebes were fishing. Attached to the float, we saw large barnacles, mussels, a big kelp crab, and lots of frilled anemones.
07.oct.30Julie L: 17:00 at my house, raking leaves, honeysweet air, cold sunlight, nuthatches nikniknikniknik-ing in the woods. I remember the nuthatch song being common all summer long, but didn’t hear them much this summer. But now, here they are. I saw a woolybear caterpillar (Pyrrharctiia isabella) in the garden with a black front third and orange band that went all the way to its hind end. Woolybears overwinter and hatch into a rather dull looking golden brown moth with small black spots.
07.oct.31Julie L: Foggy morning. Nuthatches calling from all sides in center of island. Found in a small water-filled bowl left in a ditch near the woodshed: Two grasshopper/katydids, 11 carnivorous ground beetles (Carabidae sp), 1 sexton beetle (Nicrophorus defodiens), 3 cylindrical millipedes (not the flattened kind), 1 large brown/yellow spider (Araneus diadematus; Insects of the Pacific Northwest actually had a picture of what looks like this very spider! It’s an orb weaver that was introduced from Europe), 3 small black beetles, 7 earwigs (the European earwig, Forficula auricularia), 1 wasp (possibly Siricidae sp), 23 woodlice.
Barry M at Cowlitz: Light breeze. Three dozen Crested Cormorants, 8 Horned Grebes, several (4+) gulls, maybe Bonaparte’s, all right off North dock and float, too much ripple to see bait, but large enough to be enticing. Probably needlefish? school seen Monday. Overcast, fog rising on Boundary Channel. Oops! Missed a pair of Red Throated Grebes. Also, two Common Loons, a lot of Double Crested Cormorants, the three join seven on Jeff Heater’s boat for a guano relief. One Coast Guard med. Cutter at Sandy Point. Some Glaucous Gulls, four (two pair) adult Bald Eagles working “pickoff” patrol further out on South towards Disney, one Great Blue Heron working lookout at standard spot in top of of madrone at elbow crook of South Bay where dock beach meets Disney Ridge beach, two Harbor Seals.
Glen R at Cowlitz 16:30:High tide, overcast, wind <6 mph, temp approx 50º. Approx eight Horned Grebes, four Red-necked Grebes, 12 Cormorants, few other birds in distance.
Julie L at Cowlitz 18:00: Tubesnouts? very thick around dock, all hanging in water facing towards incoming water from Disney. Very few birds, including a pair of smallish grebes, fishing.
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