Sitka Nature

Just in case people end up on the blog while looking for the plots of Marge and Tedin’s observation data, you can find those here.

It’s been a busy few days, with not much time spent outside. I did get to go for a short boat ride out to Eastern Channel then back through Crescent Bay and out a little past the runway.

Weather: Monday was sunny and decently warm (for this time of year) with calm winds. If it wasn’t for classes, I probably would have gone kayaking. The sunset was pretty colorful, but there was a band of low clouds on the horizon. Tuesday it was overcast and cool, but winds were light. Out on the boat, there was a pretty good breeze blowing out of Silver Bay; enough to cause white caps. In Crescent Bay there was very little wind, and only a gentle swell past the runway.

Birds: While out on the boat today there were several Common Murres, at least one Thick-billed Murre, a Rhinocerous Auklet, several Common Loons, several Pelagic Cormorants, at least a couple of Marbled Murrelets, a Pigeon Guillemot, various goldeneyes and mergansers, a Harlequin or two, a Long-tailed Duck (just out from Crescent Harbor), and numerous gulls and eagles.

Quite a few gulls were at the fish cleaning station taking advantage of scraps being tossed by a couple of fisherman cleaning fish.

Other Notes: There was a large sealion also taking advantage of the scraps dropped by the fisherman.

The rhubarb is starting to come up in the raised bed behind our house.

I’m pretty sure this is an alcid, but I can’t figure out what it is. I saw it twice this afternoon between Crescent Harbor and the end of the runway. Looking at the beak, it seems most like a Rhinocerous Auklet, but the white at the front of the wing seems out of place. I would dismiss that as a lighting effect, but I could still see it on the bird in the later photographs (which aren’t even as good as the one seen here) in different light. It seemed to stay underwater for a long time and/or it swam a long way before surfacing. Both times I saw it dive, I was not able to see where it came up despite looking all around for at least a couple of minutes.