Sitka Nature

It was getting close to dark on this heavy overcast day and the bird seen here was staying near the tops of the trees. The poor light made it difficult for me to identify this bird at first. This difficulty was compounded by the fact that I was not really expecting to see a robin. My first winter back in Sitka (2002-2003) I didn’t notice any robins. The second winter I saw some in November, but did not recall seeing them much again until January. Last winter I remember seeing robins in January after not seeing them for some weeks before that. This year again, robins have shown up in January.

My best guess is that the robins that are showing up here in January are those that have stayed as far north as possible for as long as possible. When the sustained colder weather of December and January comes, they move only as far south as they must, and some of them end up in Sitka where they spend the rest of the winter. It seems like a plausible scenario to me.

(Larger Version)

Baranof Island is covered in temperate rainforest. What parts of Sitka that are not bounded by the sea are typically surrounded by forest slopes of the mountains of Baranof Island. The mature forest consists of Sitka Spruce, Western Hemlock, and Yellow Cedar, with Mountain Hemlock becoming dominant at higher elevations.

The photo shows the lower slopes of Gavan Hill. The orange color near the bottom is spruce trees loaded with cones (there was a bumper crop of cones for both spruce and hemlock, but the spruce cones show up better from a distance). I think most of the lightest green/yellow trees are cedars, with the spruce trees tending towards the darker gray/green. The hemlock trees tend to be intermediate.