January 14 - Around Town - not really birding

It was another frosty 30° morning with freezing fog.  By 11 a.m., it was obvious that it would be a while before the fog burned off from South Puget Sound.  So, I decided to walk the 2½ miles downtown to do some errands.  The neighborhood Black-tailed deer were out, wishing that all of the apples hadn’t already fallen from the trees.

Black-tail doe Odocoileus hemionus columbianus

The hazelnut catkins provided some color

The catkin is the male flower on this monoecious tree

I was somewhat surprised to find that some of the willows also were developing catkins; it seems a little early for Pussy Willows

Pussy Willow catkins

This wasn’t really a “birding” trip, but I keep track of the birds I see on almost all of my walks, and put them onto eBird Checklists.  On my way down the hill, I saw a number of birds, including a flock of Golden-crowned Sparrows

Golden-crowned Sparrow Zonotrichia atricapilla.  Atricapilla means "black-haired" in Latin

As I crossed the Fourth Avenue Bridge,

Ignore the homeless camp below the bridge.  Most of us do...

I noted a Pacific red cedar hosting a half-dozen Great Blue Herons amongst its branches

The grey dots are herons

and a Common Goldeneye diving for his crab lunch

He doesn't seem to like having his picture taken . . .

Gulls are ubiquitous in this town, flying overhead, as well as perching on railings, piers, and rooftops

"Olympic" gull on Bayview Market's roof

The tide was high, and a lot of jellyfish were undulating through the top of the water column.  This moon jelly (Aurelia aurita) was accompanied by a school of three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Hooded Mergansers are commonly seen along the Olympia nearshore

Hooded Merganser hen

I finished my errands and returned home by the same route, enjoying the sun that had burned through the fog for a couple of hours before settling back in later in the afternoon.

Not that bad-looking of a town

There was a drake Goldeneye in the same location where I’d seen him on my way down, and this time he appeared to be more successful

He was luncheoning on a green shore crab Hemigrapsus oregonensis

Some of the Great Blue Herons had dropped from the cedar tree as the tide ebbed

This one landed on the “Rainbow Bridge” which is a railroad bridge built across the estuary back in the day.

The line has since been abandoned, and a few years ago, some of the local artistes took their paintbrushes to the bridge to Perform Random Acts of Art

The paint is beginning to fade on the "Rainbow Bridge"

I walked back up the Garfield Nature Trail to the westside neighborhood, which is somewhat "eclectic."

If Santa Claus didn't come to your house this year, here's the reason

Perhaps, that is why we live here

This Cooper's Hawk made certain I arrived home safely