Nice to have the forest damped down and the small streams are running a bit. We collected 800 gallons of household rain water over the past two days. Blue berries and red huckleberries plumping up and will head to community garden to clean up weeds and see how the potatoes are going.
The Shrine stream is running again albeit low and we've had no salmon(chums/pinks) spawning this year- maybe dry conditions but also concern for industrial trawling bycatch and a larger-than- usual number of seiners in the area last month. Cruise ship season still on overload, crowded trails and even local picnic spots getting hard to come by with so many now renting cars that program in 'local favorite spots'.
Bear seem to have worked back into the confluences of larger streams and the rivers where salmon have made it upstream to spawn.
Alders, birch, vine maples starting to turn color and most grasses and bushes drying up and casting seeds. Last year the mountain ash(not native) didn't produce many berries/fruits-this year a lot...same with the red elderberry. So far not seeing the usual migration south of varied thrush...hoping not a bird flu issue.