Fidalgo Island Crossings

From Wild Fidalgo , more than clouds occupy the skies of Fidalgo Island, Washington.  Meet two of our resident Bald Eagle neighbors.  A hunting perch provides the eagles a high vantage point for observing Skagit Bay. Weather Statistics for November, 2010 Temperature High 63.5° F Low 18.6° F Mean 43.2° F Rainfall 2.79 inches  Wind High 35 mph Average 3.0 mph Dom Dir SSE South Fidalgo Station Data (See Climate page for complete climatological data)

A tombolo is a sand bar which connects an island to another island or to the mainland.  Puget Sound is a glacial fjord extending from Deception Pass to Olympia, Washington, about 100 miles.  Between 2.5 million and 13,000 years ago, it was carved by successive ice age glaciations .  Beginning 15-18,000 years ago, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet was the last.  When it receded, it left behind hundreds of large and small islands sculpted from volcanic rock.  Wave action can bend around the small islands and gradually build up sediments on the lee side.  Given enough time, these sediments may end up connecting the smaller island to another land mass forming the tombolo.  In Scotland, they are known as ayers from the Old Norse word eyrr .  At Deception Pass State Park, Rosario Head at Bowman Bay is shown in the photo above.  Enlarging the photo will reveal the narrow strip of land connecting it to Fidalgo I...

A South Fidalgo Skywatch sampler gives us clear sky, clouds, fog and N.A.S. Whidbey contrails over Skagit Bay, a little bit of everything.

 Spotted Towhee ( Pipilo maculatus ) From Wild Fidalgo , despite unseasonal cold weather and snow, the birds must continue to make a living.  They never get a snow day or a Thanksgiving holiday.  Have a great Thanksgiving Day everyone.

Snow on South Fidalgo, November 22, 2010  Nor'easters are large windstorms that blow in from the northeast.  They occur in the northeastern US and Atlantic Canada.  In the Pacific Northwest, we have our own special version of a nor'easter occurring right now.  When conditions are right, cold air masses from the Canadian Arctic move down the Fraser River Valley and into the Strait of Georgia.  They continue down the Puget Sound Basin bringing uncharacteristically cold weather to western Washington.  The process will be enhanced by a low pressure system to our south.  This will add to the draw on the cold air.  Conditions can be similar to those that produce "lake-effect" snow in the east, basically cold air moving over warm water.  These events can affect the weather all the way into California .  South Fidalgo, December 22, 2008 Snow is rare here and we consider 40° F (4° C) cold.  Today it is 25° F (-3° C) and snowing lightly....

From Wild Fidalgo , athletic Eastern Gray Squirrels ( Sciurus carolinensis ) have become adept at raiding the bird feeders.

Last Monday, most of the Puget Sound region was hit with a moderate windstorm.  Downed trees and widespread power outages were experienced.  Here on South Fidalgo Island, it remained calm all day.  This is because the winds were from the west.  We are sheltered from storms blowing from the west and north.  It was our turn on Wednesday.  This time the winds blew from the south, and that puts us directly in the line of fire.  Typically, Pacific low pressure systems like to move in over Vancouver Island in Canada.  This draws the winds right up the Puget Sound basin between the Olympic and Cascade Mountains.  This was the case on Wednesday delivering sustained winds in the 20's mph (~40 kph) with gusts to 35 mph/58 kph.  Of course, these are moderate winds by any standard, but enough to do a little damage. Douglas Fir trees will protect themselves by sacrificing some of their limbs to the wind: By giving up a few limbs, t...