7:20 AM Gray dawn gives way to sunrise. Golden glow over the hill in the east, reflected in a bright streak across the water. Clouds behind me to the west look large and fluffy, turned to pink cotton candy in the sunshine.
7:40 AM The first few drops of rain have me scrambling for my raincoat. The golden glow fades to pink, masked by the quickly moving rainclouds. The pink fades to gray.
7:50 AM It's pouring rain. Glad I got everything under the tarp in my scramble. At least this is Rite-In-The-Rain paper, because that's exactly what I'm doing. Wet.
7:55 AM Any last vestiges of a colorful forgiving dawn are gone. Gray skies set in, the clouds leaving only murky shapes in the gloom.
8:05 AM Definitely time for the first morning cuppa. Thermoses are amazing. Hellloooo Earl Grey.
8:13 AM Drat. First seal of the day. Was hoping to get a little more grace time. Resurfaces at 8:15 AM.
8:20 AM There it is again. Head just out of water, looking around with, if I were to anthropomorphize (which I would NEVER do) I would call a faintly bored expression. Resurfaces 8:23 AM.
8:25 AM It appears that Twinings has changed their Earl Grey recipe. It is garishly orange-y in flavor. A good Grey should be accented with bergamot, not bludgeouned with it. For shame. Ah well. At least it's hot.
8:27 AM V of birds fly by, and while at first impression they might seem so, I'm not convinced they're geese. They go by as if on a roller coaster, riding a sinuous curve. Flap up to the crest, glide down the trough, flap up. Repeat. They are silent. Definitely not geese, then. I can hear a cackling flock somewhere in the gray. Geese can't help but discuss their travels at length.
8:32 AM Can it be? It is! Sunshine and blue skies sweep in from behind me. It is a new dawn. I doubt i will last, but for now, I will bathe in the mellow light and enjoy the streaming rays lighting up the distance.
8:45 AM Seal.
8:49 AM Seal.
8:57 AM Rainbow blown apart by wind. Seal.
8:48 AM Seal.
9:03 AM Elsburg (Panama) / upriver
Prow cleaving a gorgeous crest through the water. Boring that it's Panama though. Apparently Panama is a caters to those who want to get their ships registered cheap, quick, and easy.
9:13 AM Seal
9:15 AM Seal
9:17 AM Great blue heron flew up the river, gliding in to the riverbank just out of sight upriver. Majestic to watch, but they make the most incongruously ridiculous sounds.
9:18 AM Seal
9:22 AM Seal
9:29 AM More rainbows
9:35 AM Gigantic eagle burst from the tree to my right. How had I not noticed it? Makes two great wheeling circles and returns to the tree. It's all brown in color, with some mottled white under the wing. Perhaps a juvenile bald eagle? The wingspan is enormous, but maybe I've just never seen a juvenile this close before. Once it's landed I can't see it any more. It's been hidden by the shifting cottonwood leaves. I guess that's how I hadn't noticed it. Doesn't help that it's right in line with the sun. At the same time as the eagle, the great blue heron swoops out from the bank, and circles squawking before returning to the bank on the far side of the tree. Perhaps something disturbed them both?
9:53 AM Juvenile bald eagle, for that is definitely what it is, takes off from tree and flies out across the water. Half way across it's met with four or five seagulls - that dive and swoop at the eagle. Now it is the reverse situation as a few days ago, and it is the eagle on the defense. It swoops close to the water, wing tips splayed out. Then, it stretches it's legs out and beats it's wings as if to land. I can see no stump or log to land on below it, it's claws barely touch the water before it is up and off again. Then, three more times it tries to land on the water, pulling back up at the last possible moment. Why does it think it can land? Eventually it pulls away from the gulls and flies to the pilings downriver to land out of sight. While watching the eagle, I see another seal in the vision of my binoculars.
10:29 AM Tug: Triton (Seattle) / downriver
10:33 AM Tug: Betsy ... something or other. Missed part of the name. (unknown). / downriver
10:38 AM Hundreds of tiny dark birds skimming across the water surface, tangling with each other and darting everywhere.
10:42, 10:46, 10:49, 10:52 and 10:55 AM Seal.
10:55 AM Cormerant surfaced with fish in it's beak as big as the bird's head and neck combined. Struggled with it for some time, then appeared to toss it back and down.
11:14 AM Seal surfaced not 10 feet from shore directly in front of me. Surfaced three times on way upstream.
11:15 AM Tug: Deschutes (Portland, OR) / downstream
11:35 AM Two seals surface at same time.
11:40 AM Seal
11:40 AM Tug: Joseph Sause (Portland) / upriver; pulling the barge "Alsea Bay", which is also pushed by the Tidewater tug the Maverick.
12:03 PM Rainbows.
12:04 PM Tug: Natoma (Portland, OR) puling a Souse Bros barge ("Chetco") attached by a long chain to another Souse Bros barge ("Hileiwa"). Attached to the side of the Hileiwa is a tugboat, the Hallefoss. At first I thought it was being pushed by the Hallefoss, but instead the tug is being towed by the second barge on the starboard side with three lines, two in the prow, one in the stern. Men on both the second barge and the tug. A man on the barge cast off the line connecting the stern. Then, moving to the prow, cast off the first line, leaving only one line still connected before the quartet disappeared out of sight.
12:47 PM There's some kind of drain, or sewer, or pipe that started gushing water. It's done it several times before. Nothing at all, and then all of a sudden a huge torrent of water. I wonder where it's coming from, and what floodgates are opened that allows this periodic cascade.
1:14 PM More rainbows.
2:01 PM More rainbows.
2:15 PM End survey.
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