"Fog is so calming"

I didn't actually say the title myself, but one of my friends said it last night as we were heading out to a barn dance at Sweet Earth Farms. I had to actually stop and think about the statement, and then I basically felt- I agree.

Yesterday was a day where it was pretty socked in with fog, especially the closer you got to the south end of the island. Which is where I spent some yesterday early afternoon. I picked up my buddy Guinness and we headed south like most run days. I went past where I normally go and went down to the Cattlepoint light house. From there we ran the cliff face; it is starting to get kind of scary with how eroded the cliff is getting to undercut the trail as I am not a light runner at all. I do know that when we probably less than a hundred feet from the light house we could no longer see it because of the fog! It was quite interesting for me too, because it has been a very long time since I have been down to the light house, and it did give me the relaxing, calming feeling to look down to the place where I did my research project while I was a student at the University of Washington Labs here.

I'm not sure how far we actually went before we turned around to head back to my truck in the drizzly fog, but I do know my iPod went through 10 "angst" songs before we were back to the truck. We were both quite satisfied with our little outing so I shared my water out of my Klean Kanteen in a bowl for him and we headed back to town. Sorry, even if I had a functioning camera it would have been completely useless! I did see a few Buffleheads, a few Harlequin ducks, and quite possibly a northern pintail (couldn't ID for sure through the fog).

Back at home I spent some time trying to get the sand out of shoes and pants from the run, and did some online research for a game camera we would like to get for work. Basically this kind of camera is one that hunters use around blinds and forested areas to learn the traffic patterns of their prey. It is a heat sensor/motion sensor camera that come on and can either take photos or video of their "catch". We are looking to hopefully get a couple of these, obviously not for the same purpose, but so we can actually get some unmonitored behavioral data. It would extremely helpful when it comes to "mouse school" for young raptors and owls to ensure they are catching their dinner. It will also give us a way to post a slew of short animal videos for people who are interested in seeing the active animals in rehab on the work website. (This is to replace an idea thrown out there about putting up a live webcam, well that would give you a lot of sleeping animals, especially to people who visit the site at night).

Other than that I surfed the internets, watched a few movies, experiments with making a new "goodie", and then went out for a short while to gather with people.

It appears that we are going to have a good foggy day today, even though on the radio this morning they talked about it burning off by noon, but it is 11 am and I just don't think so at this point. I can tell you that the fog is holding the heat in, this morning was so warm, I nearly want to run around in a tee-shirt at work, but opted not to.

Speaking of work, I guess I should get back to working on protocols before I have to tube feed a Trumpeter Swan.

Hope you have a good day.