A very typical winter day for the Puget Sound coast, about 48 degrees F,
very little wind, foggy and low clouds with both Vashon-Maury Island and
the Normandy Park bluff intermittently visible from the fishing pier..
...really peaceful, quiet and beautiful without the usual Sunday mobs.
It has been a long time, weeks, since the tide has been so low during
daylight hours on a Sunday. Precipitation ranged from feathery mist to a
rather more earnest splattering drizzle during my 3 hr survey.

There are a fair number of birds on the water, expected species such as
White-winged and Surf scoters; many Horned grebes with some showing color;
Double-crested cormorants; rafts of Barrows and a few Common goldeneyes,
Mew, Glaucous-winged, and Glaucous-winged X Western hybrid gulls plus a
recently seen possible Herring? X Glaucous-winged hybrid; one Pied-billed
grebe showing its name and coloring up, many Coots and various Mallards
plus a few Am. wigeon and a scattering of Killdeer amongst the beach
cobble..

Notable today was a visiting jv Bald eagle cavorting about the beach
causing a Red Alert to every other bird, a lone male Kingfisher, a Pelagic
cormorant (only occasional this winter), and three Red-necked grebes with
one in nearly-complete alternative plumage. The Red-necked grebes have
been scarce around here since the first bad storms in early Jan. There is
also a pair of Pigeon guillemots in definite alternative plumage.

One other interesting incident that was drawing viewers (besides the
eagle) was a River otter that had climbed up on the roof of an unoccupied
sailboat moored near the assisted launch area. It groomed and
lolly-gagged and availed itself of various projections on the boat roof to
de-itch scatchy places on its belly. It yawned at its human admirers and
finally slipped back into the water, a sleek and beautiful creature.

And one more thing....Salmonberry have been blooming in the Des Moines
Beach Park over the past 10 days, perhaps early?!

Cheers to all,
Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA

"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of
confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication, and courage."
-Carl Sagan-