Sitka Nature

Took a short walk down to the park today to take a picture of the angel-wing fungus. It’s getting noticably cooler.

Weather: It felt pretty chilly today. The pattern of periodic rain showers moving through continued from yesterday. The difference was today between showers the sun actually appeared at times.

Birds: I did not spend too much time looking at birds today, though I did see a Fox Sparrow and a Golden-crowned Sparrow in the backyard this afternoon.

After only fleeting or distance glimpses of non-Bald Eagle raptors around Sitka, I seem to have finally made it into the club these last couple of days. Well, the young Sharp-shinned Hawk section of the club, anyway.

Tuesday, I got my first reasonably close photo of a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Wednesday I had the chance to watch a Sharp-shinned Hawk around our house for half an hour or so (more on that in a moment) and then again at Totem Park later in the day. Friday I saw a hawk on the beach at Totem Park and then over in the estuary. I think all the sightings were probably of the same young hawk.

The Steller’s Jay shown here has been coming by to get peanuts from us for the last couple of weeks or so. The Sharp-shinned Hawk was certainly no bigger than the jay and may have even been a little smaller. Despite this, the hawk repeatedly dove at the jay. For its part, the jay did not seem too concerned with the hawk, though it would squawk a little bit sometimes when the hawk got close. On at least one occasion it was easy to see that the hawk could have grabbed the jay, so I do not know why it did not do so. The following was a fairly typical exchange:

The hawk perched in one of the trees across from the house. It appeared to be carefully watching the front of our house, where it suspected the jay would come back to grab another peanut. The jay landed, grabbed a peanut and flew up to the roof. As it was doing this, the hawk took flight. It glided down toward the jay and arrived shortly after the jay landed on the roof. I saw the hawk reach out its talons as if to grab the jay but the jay only flinched a little bit and might have made a slight call. The hawk pulled out and flew up to a different tree to watch again.

The hawk did not always watch the front, sometimes it would wait in the back, where the jay often hides peanuts. I watched this continue for quite a while before the hawk finally flew off toward the flume.

I am not sure if Sharp-shinned Hawks can normally catch jays or not, but it seemed clear that this particular jay was not concerned about this particular hawk. From what I could tell, it did not need to be. I am not sure what the hawk hoped to accomplish, perhaps it really thought it had a chance to catch the jay and eat it. It appeared to have the coloring of a juvenile, so it may just be learning how to be an effective predator.

Took a walk to the park today this afternoon with Kitty LaBounty and someone else who was interested in finding out about what’s going on as Fall comes to Sitka.

Weather: It rained over 3 inches yesterday, and while it was no where close to that today, it was still pretty wet. Showers were periodic, with pretty heavy rain when it was falling, but there was time between showers.

Birds: Last night I woke up at least a couple of times to the sound of geese flying overhead. It sounded like there were lots of them flying over fairly low. I kept my eyes and ears open throughout the day, but did not notice any more until this evening around 5pm. There were probably a couple of hundred geese flying over downtown toward Crescent Bay and beyond. They were not as organized as I usually see them, so I think either the wind was blowing them around or they were getting ready to find a place to land.

There was an American Pipit feeding in the grass near the SJC greenhouse around noon today.

The Sharp-shinned Hawk was on the beach at the park. It flew off shortly after I saw it, but I think it had been going after Savannah Sparrows. There were a few in the area when we got to where the hawk had been standing on the beach. One of the sparrows in particular seemed very reluctant to move. I think it may have been afraid that the hawk was still watching and waiting. A little later we saw the hawk chasing a flicker around the estuary.

There were lots of gulls on the park beach. There were 40 or more Black Turnstones. Some of the Fork-tailed Storm-petrels were coming pretty close to shore.

In the estuary there were several American Wigeons and Green-winged Teal.

We heard a Hairy Woodpecker in the park.

Other Notes: There were several different fungus fruiting in the park. I did not have the correct camera lenses or my tripod, so I did not try to get a picture. The angelwing fungus was particularly showy, so I will try to go get a photo of it tomorrow.

I did manage to get in a short walk through the park today early in the afternoon and a more leisurely walk through later in the evening.

Weather: It was fairly wet today with a little bit of wind.

Birds: I saw quite a few birds today. There were lots of sparrows around the neighborhood, including Fox Sparrows, Song Sparrows, several Golden-crowned Sparrows, and Savannah Sparrows.

As I was leaving home after a mid-morning snack/brunch, I happened to hear an odd call. I decided to investigate and eventually figured out that it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk. I spent half an hour or so watching it and the Steller’s Jay that has been coming for peanuts.

Later in the afternoon, when I went to the park for the second time, I stopped to look at a Northern Flicker in the alders near the battle site when I caught some motion out of the corner of my eye. I looked up to see a Sharp-shinned Hawk land in the alders. It flew off toward the beach before I could get a photo. However, I did go out to the beach and got there just after a flock of Black Turnstones flushed and flew down the shoreline. I think the hawk may have made an attempt at them. A little later, while I was looking at ducks in the estuary, I saw the hawk chasing a Kingfisher. It also chased after a small bird, probably a Savannah Sparrow. I never did see it catch anything. I think it was the same bird that was around our neighborhood earlier in the day.

There was a Marbled Godwit out on the flats during my first walk through the park, but I did not see it the second trip.

There were several Green-winged Teal and American Wigeons in the estuary along with the Mallards and lots of gulls.

Other birds I saw today included several Fork-tailed Storm-petrels still out in Crescent Bay, an Oragne-crowned Warbler in front of Stratton Library, Harlequin Ducks and both Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants out off of Sage Beach and some Winter Wrens in the park.

Other Notes: It looks like a deer nibbled on the leaves of my carrots.

On my second trip through the park, I saw a seal up in the river. The tide was in fairly far, so the water was deep, but it was definitely in the river channel.

I saw at least one squirrel that looked like it was eating alder cones. They are pretty green still, but maybe that’s the best time for the squirrels to get the seeds out.