25 January 2025

This week was cold and drizzly during our family visit to Boca Raton. My brother said it was like Seattle weather. Yes.

We went to the beach on Tuesday where I saw many Portuguese man o’war (Physalia physalis) washed up on the sand. They are named for the topside bubble that resembles the sail on a Portuguese Man O’War ship. Not technically jellyfish they are actually hydrozoa, small colonial predatory animals that sting powerfully enough to kill their prey. Do Not Touch, especially while swimming!

Best Birds were seven magnificent frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens) soaring in the cold north wind near their northernmost point on the Atlantic coast. (This Wikimedia photo is from Colombia.)

Flying into Pittsburgh on Thursday I saw ice on all three rivers, especially on the Allegheny so I stopped at Duck Hollow yesterday on my way the grocery store. You can see that a lot of the river is ice free but the mud bar is surrounded.

Listen as floating ice scrapes past the dark green channel marker (in the center of this video) while 125 ring-billed gulls lounge on the ice.