Sun

The weather reports were wrong, thankfully, and the sun finally burned it's way through the seemingly ever present layer of fog; first time in almost four days. It's been so very gloomy. I went for a walk, wearing a down jacket, air quickly warming. I had to remove multiple layers and turn off my radiator by the time I got back from lunch.

Birds. Lot of residents back for the winter. A lone western grebe, American coots, crows, mallards, (including one that looks domesticated, but seems to be getting along fine with all the other wintering birds, flocking, feeding, and generally hanging out with the wild bunch.) Also gadwalls and cormorants (not sure which type), all these birds on Lake Washington, or along the canal. In the main pond, after I stood for a while with the relative silence and emptiness, three hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) floated out of the overhanging brush, and toward the center of the pond, ever so regally.  There was a pied-billed grebe and another waterfowl that I couldn't quite get a good look at on the other side of the pond. Earlier, a small hawk (sharp-shinned? Cooper's?) shot past me, low and fast. Later, I saw it flap and glide in a circular path higher into the sky, hunting, I suppose. Wrens and Stellar jays further away from the water, and the call of a belted kingfisher, and a hummingbird, neither of which I saw today.

Along the path itself, a western garter snake sunning itself (like me, only stationary), I stood motionless and watched it until two other walkers approached and it reluctantly slithered into the grass. I say "reluctantly" because they had to get within a foot of it for the snake to begin to move away, and then it did so quite slowly. 50 yards further, a much faster, and beefy-looking, caterpillar also crossed the very exposed gravel path from one patch of grass to the other.

Garter Snake/L Herlevi 2013

My mood (and my energy) has improved tremendously, mostly from the sunlight. Not a trace of clouds above me, the fog rolls down further and further toward the horizon until it evaporates from view.