Overcast with snow. Very cloud breaks between snow showers this afternoon allowed the sun to shine through briefly.

I went back to Starrigavan to follow up on a lichen I had not initially collected on my Monday visit.

The tide was out far enough for a reasonably wide band of snow-free beach.

  I didn’t see the Hermit Thrush today, but several other species of birds I don’t typically associate with the shore were taking advantage of the bare ground in the intertidal zone.

  Dark-eyed Junco has the most distinctive brown back of the head and crown contrasting with gray face that I ever remember seeing

A handful of Varied Thrushes and a Song Sparrow were not surprising.

  I don’t remember seeing juncos down on the intertidal part of the beach before, but a dozen or more were foraging there today.

  Perhaps most surprising was the Northern Flicker. It didn’t let me see it for long enough to see exactly what it was doing. After I initially saw it land on a rock, each subsequent time I saw it take off, it had been on the beach.

  In addition to the Northern Flicker, I was able to add Red-breasted Sapsucker to my year list. I heard strange calls that I thought might be sapsuckers around the bayside picnic shelters. Investigating further, I got a brief look at two of them. They remained high in trees and I didn’t stick around for too long to try for better looks.

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

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