Sitka Nature

Sunshine and calm gave way to a dense fog that moved in over town. Photos are from the beach before the fog settled in and then from a short kayak trip into the channel and back to Sage Beach.

[View with PicLens]

The promise of a nice day with calm winds and relatively warm temperatures lured me out on the water to take a little kayak trip. I stayed out for a little while, but the thickening of the fog kept me close to shore. While I was paddling, since visibility was limited anyway, I tried paddling with my eyes closed. After a minute or so, I had turned 90 degrees to the left, despite trying to orient by the sound of the waves against the breakwater. Clearly I need a little more practice at that. The easiest way to tell direction in the fog was by the sun, but I never did go far enough away from shore that I could not see it, so I didn’t need to use the sun for navigation.

Weather: There was fog in the morning when I headed for class, but winds were calm. The fog was lifting by 9am, but started settling back in around 10am. It thickened throughout the day. Part of the time I was kayaking, I could see Mt. Verstovia, though there was fog all around me. Even by the end, I could still see a little bit of blue sky directly above, so the fog layer was not too thick. A student told me that there was no fog out Green Lake Road when he and another student road out that way on bicycles.

Birds: It was a little difficult to see the birds through the fog, but I did see plenty of Long-tailed Ducks, Common Mergansers, scaups and gulls in the channel. There was also a loon, probably a Common Loon. Between Sage Beach and the bridge there were Common Mergansers and Barrow’s Goldeneyes. I also saw at least one pair of Harlequin Ducks.

As I made it back to Sage Beach, I saw a loon (possibly the same one I had seen previously in the channel) and a Marbled Murrelet off the Crescent Harbor Breakwater.

Weather: Overcast and breezy Sunday with more overcast and rain/mist on Monday. Today it was partly cloudy in the morning, but for the better part of the day, the fog was settled over town. A couple of students climbed up Mt. Kincaid Saturday and were able to get above the clouds, I suspect the same could have been done today after the fog settled in.

Birds: The American Wigeon and Ring-necked Ducks were still at Swan Lake Sunday. I’m not sure if there were two wigeons or not.

Today we went out to Starrigavan and saw the swans. There were plenty of Mallards as well. The tide was up fairly high and on the ocean side, I saw a Surf Scoter feeding fairly close to shore with several goldeneyes. There was a Kingfisher on a branch over Starrigavan Creek intently looking into the water for something to eat.

I noticed a bird nest in the salmonberry bushes just outside the upper entrance to the library this afternoon.

Other Notes: The days are starting to get noticably longer. I realized yesterday that it was still light at 4:30pm.

I’ve noticed a few different places where it seems like mosses have been growing larger (more widespread, is probably more accurate) in the last couple of months. There are also many mosses that are sending up sporophytes. I’m not sure how they avoid damage from freezing when they do this.