Sitka Nature

I took a walk down to New Thompson Harbor today with a stop by Swan Lake on the way home. The folks in the harbor seemed especially friendly today, as a number of them stopped to visit for a bit.

Weather: It was partly cloudy with winds picking up through the day. Winds were out of the Southeast and the forecast was for a wind advisory tonight. By late this evening it was definitely windy outside. Temperatures were in the 30s during the day, but warmed up to over 40 as the wind picked up this evening.

Birds: Near the Lincoln Street playground, there were several Chestnut-backed Chickadees and Golden-crowned Kinglets foraging in the spruce trees. I was able to get some good looks at both of them before I continued on my walk.

Birds of note today at New Thompson Harbor included a juvenile Greater-white Fronted Goose feeding on the lawns around the parking lot, a Common Murre feeding in the water between fingers of the dock, a Marbled Murrelet close to the dock, several loons, Pelagic Cormorants, Long-tailed Ducks, Common Mergansers, and lots of gulls. I was told by someone of the people that live in the harbor, that Great Blue Herons come and perch on the boats sometimes.

On my walk down Katlian Street, there were 30 or so scaups in a small cove, presumably ducking out of the wind. I saw several more flying over toward the channel a little later. Near the cove, there was also a heron perched on the wing of a float plane.

At Swan Lake there were two American Coots, 6 American Wigeons, and several gulls along with the usual assortment of Mallards. The lake was mostly frozen and the scaups I had seen there previously were not in sight. They probably moved out to the channel with the freezing of the lake.

Flora: The more I walk around, the more trees and shrubs I notice that have not lost their leaves. As common as it seems this year, I can’t believe I would have missed it in previous years. This makes me think that this year is unusual in this regard. The only thing I can think of is that with the cold spring and cool summer, the plants did not store up as much energy as they might have liked and were holding on to leaves a little longer.

Other Notes: I saw three river otters playing and sunning themselves near the Bill Brady Healing House along Katlian Street. I was upwind of them as I approached. A couple of times they looked in my direction and sniffed the air, but then went back to what they were doing. Finally, one saw me moving and it took off. The others followed after it. When I went over to look where they were, I saw a mink down in the rocks near the water.

There were at least a couple of sea lions in the harbor when I was there.

It warmed up enough this evening that there was a moth which came to the window of my office. I’m not sure where it hid out during the cold weather.

The warbler I saw the other day was a Nashville Warbler (Vermivora ruficapilla).

I first saw the bird as I was bicycling down Lincoln Street and nearing the intersection with Katlian. It flew across in front of me, and I thought it looked like an Orange-crowned warbler. As it had been over a month since the my last observation of an Orange-crowned Warbler, I decided to investigate. Initially the bird flew from the Pioneer Home side of the road to the sidewalk in front of Harry Race, but I did not find it there. I took a chance and went back over to the Pioneer Home Lawn and looked around in the hedge. I was able to locate it there, and it did not take long for me to realize that it looked different than any other warbler I had seen.

The most striking feature of the bird’s plumage was the bright yellow throat. It flitted about through the roses bushes much like an Orange-crowned Warbler might, but it did not look like any Orange-crowned Warblers that I had ever seen. I was able to get a few pictures before it flew further down the hedge and I lost sight of it. Rather than try to relocate it, I continued on my way and figured I would take a look at my photos when I got back to my computer.

Upon looking at the photos and comparing what I saw with what was in the bird books, my best guess was that the bird was a Nashville Warbler. It seemed like it could possibly also be a Common Yellowthroat (which I have not seen before), also. Common Yellowthroats occur in Southeast Alaska each year, but Nashville Warblers do not normally come north of Interior Southern British Columbia. That is their breeding range, and by this time they should be well on to their southern winter range. For these reasons, I felt uncertain about the identification and sent out e-mails to a couple of Alaska Birding lists.

In the meantime, I headed back down to the Pioneer Home in the afternoon to see if I could get some better photos. I looked closely as I walked along the hedges, but had no luck finding the bird after 15 minutes or so. About that time, someone else showed up to look for the bird also, and then I saw it. Actually, I saw two birds. The brief glimpse of the birds together made me think they were both the same species, but I never got a really good look at each of them (as far as I know), so I am not certain about that. I was able to get a few more photos, but the bird was very active, and tended to be at least partially obscured by leaves.

I was a little curious about what the bird was finding to eat, so I turned over some of the leaves and saw very small aphids. They were presumably frozen, but I guess that’s what the warbler was consuming.

When I got back to my computer, I the responses from the birding lists were all affirmative for Nashville Warbler. I later learned that this was only the fourth confirmed record in the state. Two years ago one made it all the way to Gambell. Last year, there were two different birds (a month apart) in Ketchikan. Prior to those records, there had been reports of Nashville Warblers, but none of them were confirmed. I’m not sure what the minimum requirements for confirmation are, but the photos I was able to get were adequate in this case.

I went back to look briefly once more the yesterday (the day after I first saw the bird) and was not able to find it, though I did not spend much time looking. Someone else told me about seeing it earlier that morning, so it did at least spend the night in the area. I may check once more in the next day or two, but I do not expect to find the bird again.