Melissa had a rental car the last couple of days, so I was able to see both ends of the road yesterdan and we drove out to Starrigavan today. I didn’t actually get around and walk at all, however. I did play a little bit of frisbee in the snow this afternoon, however.

Weather: Yesterday was fairly nice, with a fair number of breaks in the clouds and little additional snow. Today it rained and snowed in the morning, with snow later in the morning and this afternoon. Some the flakes were huge. I’m calling it spring snow based on the thought that big snow flakes like this are more typical for snow in the spring. (I think this is more wishful thinking than anything else.) Winds were quite calm today. The snow on the lawn on campus as decreased in depth quite a lot in the last few days. It was only a few inches deep when we were running around in it this afternoon.

Birds: I counted 13 swans at Starrigavan yesterday, so I must have missed one (or it showed up later) on Friday. There were still a lot of mergansers at Starrigavan on Friday as well.

The gulls have really gathered along the beach between Sea Mart and Sandy Beach. There are also lots of eagles in the trees along the shoreline. I guess they’re all waiting for the herring to move into the shallows.

There’s been a report of an adult eagle cannibalizing other eagles at HPR rec lately.

Today there were lots of cormorants and ducks of some sort spread out along the shore from Sea Mart north. I didn’t get a good look, so I’m not sure what all the ducks were.

Yesterday there were quite a number of scaups in the lagoon by the airport.

Other Notes: Yesterday there was a whale near the mouth of Silver Bay. Today there were two whales fairly close to shore near the turnout that looks out on to the Kasiana Islands. It appeared that a couple of boats were watching them.

The anticipation for the herring spawn is rising. Off Sandy Beach there was a boat pulling in a net that, given the number of birds flocking over it, must have had fish in it. I assume it was a haul to sample the roe percentage to see if it’s time for the opening yet. I would like to get out on the boat during herring time this year, but I’m not sure it will happen.

These pictures were taken while we were driving around Sitka a little bit today.

Bear Mountain Ridge

Bear Mountain Ridge

This was a test set to determine whether the herring was optimal for sac roe fishery.

Today I took a walk down to Lincoln Street Beach and then a little later was able to get a ride out the road on the chance that some Snow Buntings that were spotted yesterday might still be around.

Weather: It was breezy with pretty heavy rain showers at times. There were small patches of blue sky between showers, but the sun never really showed its face for any length of time. There seemed to be a significant loss of snow today on the flat. Where it had been plowed or compressed, the effect seemed less.

Birds: At Starrigavan there were well over 100 mergansers. Most of them were Common Mergansers, but there was also a dozen or more Red-breasted Mergansers. Despite the death of a swan a couple of weeks ago, there were 12 Trumpeter Swans at Starrigavan. This would imply that three more have joined the 9 (10-1) that were there for much of the winter. I also saw the three female Green-winged Teal that have been there all winter.

At HPR Rec, there were quite a few Harlequins around. A Horned Grebe was a ways south of Magic Island, and there were a few Surf Scoters in sight down that way as well. Also, a King Fisher was perched over Granite Creek.

I saw gulls and Pelagic Cormorants several locations.

At Swan Lake there were lots of gulls, a Hooded Merganser, Ring-necked Ducks, and scaups.

Other Notes: It seems the plants are as ready for spring as the rest of us. I saw both Salmonberries and Blueberries with buds broken open. Flowers and leaves won’t be far behind. The Villous Cinquefoil at Sage Beach had young leaves emerging as well.

The small green seaweed was still pretty thick on the rocks at the beach. In addition, there was a brown seaweed that looked like long hair on the rocks that was not there the last time I looked a couple of weeks ago or more. Larger fronds of other seaweeds that picked too small of a holdfast anchor have started washing up on the beach, so the marine algae are clearly growing.