Musings

We planned to lunch IN A RESTAURANT today (yes, first time since…) before the mask mandate change. We planned to sit on the deck. Turned out the deck tables were already occupied when we arrived (plus, in the full sun!), so we sat INDOORS. The tables were arranged for 50% capacity, and we had our space. Everyone I saw wore their mask except when they were eating. Including us.

We ate with a view of the Olympics—so clear!—and of the mouth of Lake Washington Ship Canal—plenty of traffic in and out. The open water to the right (outside photo view) is Puget Sound and salt water. The Canal connects the the freshwater Lake Washington (follow the water to the left for a ways) to the Sound. The Ballard/Chittenden Locks enable boat passage as there’s a 20-foot difference in the elevations of sea and the lake. The Locks block the migrating salmon so the lock complex includes a fish ladder. The water passing through the fish ladder has to be “adjusted” (long story elsewhere) to include salt water to provide the proper scent for the fish to want to jump jump jump jump jump up the ladder to their spawning grounds. Constructing the Canal decreased the water level in Lake Washington by almost 9 feet, so I imagine there was some hue and cry from landowners whose docks became useless. But construction began in 1911, so maybe there was more rah!rah!rah! and less dissent about such changes to real estate value etc. I’m just guessing. You can find more info on all this on the web; ’sup to you.

My seafood salad includes smoked scallops. So very yum. What a great meal to be our first IN IN IN a restaurant since, well, you know.

Posted at 7:00 PM | Comments Off on Breaking our fast

The high school nephew had an open day today, because: covid. So we had an outing. We took a short ferry ride, a little longer than it took to wait to board, board, and disembark. We were told to stay in our vehicle, because: covid.

Since it was mid-day, our first stop was food. We drove by the possibilities and picked a hometown burger place. With a food truck. This is the drivers control area. Shift on the left, which I do not recall ever seeing for a left driver. Not because: covid.

After wiping our chins and downing the last fry, we drove on to Point No Point Lighthouse. It is the shortest lighthouse I remember ever seeing.

Atop a row of evergreens I suspect were planted to protect the lighthouse from the prevailing winds, we saw eagles land and watch the doin’s below from on high—not so much the tourists as the fishing.

Down on the beach, we spotted an otter moving along, then finding something to eat—clam perhaps? An eagle spotted this, too, and dived the otter; however, the otter seemed to have positioned her/himself to see if this happened, and quickly plunged into the water, saving lunch from the feathered, screaming predator-thief.

Next stop had no David Attenborough drama, instead an eroding escarpment called Foulweather Bluff. Rusty red dot lower right is nephew’s jacket, so you can tell it’s a tall bluff.

Lucky us, the tide was out. We used our identification crutch, the iNaturalist app, and found out these are aggregating anemone. With seaweed and what we thought was a tiny jellyfish.

With plenty of excitement behind us, we headed back to the ferry, and were stopped behind HTBNANA. The plate surround indicated that “it only happens twice.” We remain unsure what that refers to.

Posted at 8:54 PM | Comments Off on Ferry adventure

We did get into the train station this morning. Nice budget version of art deco details, as we also saw on the exterior.

Then we headed down the road…to Atlanta! Hey, look at that population! And the town further down the road: Macon. No kidding. Much larger population, so this is a true alternate universe.

Motored west to Loess Bluffs NWR. The Refuge is mostly Missouri River floodplain, and not the bluffs. I did notice our westbound descent to the floodplain, and only later realized that our path dropped down from the loess bluffs.

Above are avocets. These are great egrets. We also saw many great blue herons and assorted ducks and geese. And four white pelicans. Whatta surprise: pelicans.

And this national crane.

We’re overnighting by the mighty flat Platte, but this is a dug lake with a forest of motels adjacent. Nighty-night.

Posted at 10:29 PM | Comments Off on Looking for loess

Raindrops from last night’s precip lasted through the day…in a few places.

Look near the crossed wires and you’ll see a small flock of sandhill cranes. These were much lower than the group I saw the other day. I suspect this group was looking for a place to stop overnight to rest and feed—central Atlanta is a poor choice for that…keep heading north, birds!

Evidence that film shoots are once again outside the studio….

And, yes, the family of the stinkhorns in the scientific classification system is Phallaceae. Hard to put one over on taxonomic specialists.

Posted at 6:57 PM | Comments Off on Great walk-finds

1. The days are noticeably longer—and the nights are shorter.

2. I practiced shadow-walking for the first time this year (sunshine avoidance—too hot!). This was rather tricky as nothing’s leafed out.

3. I heard sandhills overhead for over two minutes. They were very high, and I couldn’t see them, but I could hear their distinctive calls for long enough to suggest a large flock migrating.

Posted at 6:39 PM | 3 Comments »

Walked to the Big Park today, and found brilliant sunshine…

…and birds. Canadas (left), of course, and Muscovys (right, bathing). In the middle, an anhinga, I think. Didn’t have binocs.

Tried to take my fav-oh-rite trail: closed. Must be a maintenance problem (perhaps a washout?); can’t be a Covid limitation…. Discarded jacket probably is from volunteer out of frame to left removing invasive species (my guess).

Posted at 8:24 PM | Comments Off on Park views

I labeled this photo dragonfly then wondered: is it? Or is it a damselfly? I do think the artist was going for dragonfly based on wing position (horizontal, away from the body). HOWEVER, by definition, dragonflies have a broader hindwing than forewing—not true of this wonderous creature.

At least that’s the rundown based on WikiPee, which I don’t think is always right, but it’s easy to find and I believe mostly correct…regarding this type on natural history topic, anyway. IMHO

Posted at 6:42 PM | Comments Off on It’s art

Had a lot of fun with this pair and a laser pointer (including body slams against the wall while stretching upward as much as possible), until they decided it was feeding time and became no longer interested.

Posted at 9:27 PM | 1 Comment »

Loaded cone flower, weighted with double bees.

Delicate and fine-scented ginger: mmmmm.

Posted at 8:50 PM | Comments Off on Of the moment

Mum bee.

Leaves: real and reflected.

Posted at 7:58 PM | Comments Off on Word play