[obol] More Signs of Spring

[Cindy Ashy]

Yesterday morning directly west of Colony Rock/Yaquina Head large rafts of
Common Murres were amassing...in the thousands. It was a completely sunshine
saturated day and the white parts of their plummage sparkled like glitter as if
their bodies were clad with diamonds. It was picture perfect...worth snapping a
mental postcard for later retrieval. Lines of rapidly flapping little torpedos
were whirling all around and joining the others in the rafts. That honky-tonk
laughter sound they make was distinctly audible yet still distant. I was there
again in the late afternoon thinking I would see even larger rafts but the
rafts had completely disappeared. Murres are so unpredictable this time of
year. I couldn't even find a single murre on the water (with just bins).
However, perhaps as a portend of things to come, two white headed eagles flew
in and perched right beside each other in the trees on the NW corner of the
headland, one facing Colony Rock and the other in the opposite
direction....watching them as they surveyed everything, it was obvious where
the phrase "eagle eye" comes from.

At the Yaquina Bay South Jetty, the first signs of white checkered breeding
plummage are beginning to show on the upper body of some of the Common Loons.

Cindy Ashy


 
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