Sitka Nature

Those who check this site frequently or subscribe to the feed may have noticed that a few back dated posts showed up today. My internet connection has been spotty for the last three weeks, so keeping up with things has been a bit of a challenge. Hopefully the maintenance work GCI is doing in the area will be completed soon and the service will be a bit more reliable.

I recently acquired a skin-on-frame kayak (built by my brother in a class taught by Brian Schulz of Cape Falcon Kayak; everyone I talked to about it thought it was a great class). It has a marked advantage for me over the other kayak I have been borrowing for the last year or so in that it is relatively easy for me to carry by msyelf. I went for a couple short paddles last week after I got it and decided to take advantage of a nice evening and paddle around Crescent Bay as the sun was setting.

Weather: Another sunny and warm day. There was a think layer of high elevation clouds that started to move in from off-shore this afternoon. Winds were calm this morning and evening, but it was a little breezy during the day.

Birds: There were lots of gulls along the beach at the park this evening (the tide was fairly low). It seemed to me that most of them were Mew Gulls, with quite a few juveniles mixed in. I will probably try to get down there again in the next couple of days to verify this, get some photos, and look for unusual gulls.

I saw a few Marbled Murrelets out in Crescent Bay. The one I got closest to appeared to have fish in its beak. I am guessing it was preparing to head back to its nest.

There were a couple of Great Blue Herons along the shore line.

I did not see any phalaropes, though they should be in the area by now.

Other Notes: The Pink Salmon were thick enough that I could feel them hitting the bottom of my kayak as they startled away from me on my approach to shore. Perhaps the dim light made it more difficult for them to see me coming, because this didn’t happen when I was starting out.

While hiking on the Middle Sister a couple of days ago, I heard a call that sounded enough like an eagle, that I might have passed it off as a strange eagle, had I not seen the bird. Fortunately, as I hiked up, it flew from its perch and landed in another tree. My brother saw where it landed, and I was able to find a position where I could get some pictures of it through the trees. The first three photos with this entry (including the one above) are of this bird. I think this bird is a Harlan’s Red-tail Hawk, though I am not positive about that. Comments are welcome.

A short distance later, I heard a second bird making the distinctive ‘creee’ call that Red-tailed Hawks are known for. I knew it was a different bird because the first bird was still calling below us, and this one was calling from higher up. This bird took off and I did not get a good look at it, but did see that it was not a Steller’s Jay imitating a hawk. I heard this hawk calling several more times as it soared by while we were hiking up.

While taking a break on an open slope near the tree line, I saw and photographed a ‘cree’ calling hawk soaring below. Unfortunately I was not well prepared, and the shutterspeed was slow, leading to a blurry picture (see last photo with this entry). However, it seems clear from the photo that this hawk looks a bit different than the first one. It appears that it might be lighter in color, but the most striking difference is the tail. The second hawk has a much redder tail with dark then white bands at the tips of the tail feathers. My thought on this bird is that it’s a Western Red-tail Hawk, though again, I’m not sure about this at all.

In addition to my questions about the identification of these birds, I also wonder about the calls. If these are separate subspecies of Red-tailed Hawk, is it just coincidence that I heard the different calls from them? Is the first one a juvenile still begging for food (and would that imply it was hatched out near here)?

While hiking around Mosquito Cove last week, I happened to notice this yellow coating on the mud underneath a stump. I thought it might be spores or something from a fungus growing underneath the stump, but when my brother looked underneath, he didn’t see anything. He went around to the other side to get a better look at the mud (he was looking for tracks) and noticed that what I had originally taken to be a yellow coating, actually was more reflective. You could only see the yellow from certain angles, as it was reflecting the light.

After he was done looking for tracks, I got down and took a closer look. They yellow was in a very thin layer on top of the mud. Just by touching my finger to the mud, it went away (presumably, sticking to my finger). The first picture below shows a dark patch in the middle where I touched the mud. It also seemed to be sensitive to light (which probably should not be too surprising, given the reflective properties). The second photo below has a dark line across the lower portion. That is from a stick I removed. It was not touching the ground there, but presumably would have shaded it (I think the effect was more in line with a shading action rather than a covering action if it had been something falling from above).

The effect is not unlike Goblin Gold Moss (Schistostega pennata), but the color was much more golden yellow, and the habitat was different. When I’ve seen Goblin Gold growing, it’s not been in such muddy areas where standing water would occur, and it has always had a much greener looking glow. That said, I perhaps this just might be an alternative form of the Goblin Gold. Anyone have any idea what this is?