Another sunny February morning here in Seattle, and the last day of February at that. An appointment this morning meant I couldn’t go far, so off I went to Discovery Park, on the north end this time. I was almost immediately greeted by a number of dark-eyed juncos and American robins browsing nearby, and even several Bewick’s wrens singing.
Dark-eyed junco
It may not be spring by the calendar, but the plants and birds sure think it is. We’ve gotten a very early spring here on the west coast and all the local birds are busy with mating displays and nest building. The normally easy-to-shoot Anna’s hummingbirds are non-stop bundles of energy right now, chasing each other around in mating displays. The only shot I got of one this morning was of a resting male with a bad lighting angle:
Anna’s hummingbird (male)
Today was a unexpectedly nice day in Seattle. Rather than the deluge of rain predicted, it was party sunny skies all morning.
So, of course, I went out and took pictures. I won’t repost most of them here, but I had two nice conversations with different people today, both of whom pointed me toward things I might not have otherwise noticed.
Several times over the past several weeks my friend Tim and I have met up to plan the schedule and route for our British Virgin Islands sailing trip this coming May, with additional input (and experience) from Charles. The trick has been striking a fine enough balance between seeing as much as we can and keeping it as a vacation, with plenty of time to relax and lots of different activities available for us and our crews.
Sure, we could just arrive there with a rough idea of where we’re going to go and wing it: in fact, in some areas that may be just fine (it’s what we did on my May 2014 sailing trip in the Sea of Cortez out of La Paz, Mexico: we had a direction picked out and where we ended up was a combination of what we decided in the morning and how the winds were that day), but in the British Virgin Islands in May, there are going to be a lot of other charter boats as well as cruisers, and we’ll be competing each afternoon with all of them for mooring balls or anchorages. It also means we don’t have to make a decision each morning, instead we can pick from what we’ve already planned as the primary and alternate sites for that day.
Today we finalized it, for as final as these things can be: You’ll notice that we have alternate anchorages/mooring sites for each day. It’s a good idea to have a flexible schedule due to variances in weather and even traffic from other boats. So, without further ado, here’s what we’ve got planned.
I skipped (most of) the work day today. I didn’t want to stare at a computer screen for hours, there was nothing urgent I couldn’t take care of later, and most importantly, it’s been beautiful and sunny all day here in Seattle. I ended up going to both Discovery Park and Magnuson Park.
Shortly after I arrived in Discovery Park I stopped to look at a rather loud song sparrow and noticed movement on the tree trunk. At first I thought (by the size) that it might be a downy woodpecker, but no; instead, I’d found a reclusive brown creeper, the first time I’ve ever seen one!
Brown Creeper