Clouds lifting off Verstovia

Showery conditions with much less wind than yesterday. Sunshine happened between some breaks in the showers, but overall it was mostly cloudy.

I spent part of the morning at the radio station to record a conversation for my next show. Friday marks 10 years since my first Sitka Nature show, so I’m counting Sunday’s as the 10th anniversary show.

After eating lunch at the Beak, I drove around a bit. The weather was mostly in shower mode, so I didn’t feel inspired to stay out long.

Herring Boats presumably out checking for the readiness of herring for harvest

It looked like herring boats were out from Middle Island area over towards Hayward Strait. Saw later they had been out more this morning. I only saw a few.

I can recognize this swan by the healing injury at the top base of its bill. It previously had leeches in each eye, but those seem to have gone.

The Trumpeter Swan at the lake with forehead injury is still there (along with another one). The leeches that had been on its eyes seem to be gone, as it’s eyes look normal again.

I went back out for a bit early this evening. I noticed nice light on some of the boats at anchor in the channel. I think I might have missed a better location/light combination by a a brief time/distance.

Some of the few gulls still hanging around the channel - presumably they've gone elsewhere for now. Some may have continued north, but I suspect many may be going to where herring are available.

Gull numbers were down significantly in the channel. At Swan Lake the past couple of days I’ve noticed more ducks spread out at upper end of lake. Today it looked like they may have been swimming around after midges on the surface. Perhaps the hatch was larger at that part of the lake?

A non-descript blob houses many strands of green bead-like cells

This evening spent 2-3 hours working through a single collection from last weekend. I had chosen it because I thought it would be a relatively fast/easy one. I ended up taking pictures of 7 different organisms. There were two others I wanted to photograph, but I lost them (a small snail shell and a mite).

The details revealed by microscope can be quite striking

I’ll have at least one new species out of the collection. I suspect some of the others would be new as well, though I don’t know if it will be possible to get them to species (or anywhere close). My iNaturalist Observations for Today

The post Evening Light at the Channel first appeared on Sitka Nature.