Sitka Nature

This morning Connor and I took a walk around Totem Park and this afternoon he and I went down to the quad to play some frisbee.

Weather: It was overcast with periods of rain. It did not rain on us at the park, and winds were fairly calm at that time. We did get rained on at frisbee.

Birds: We saw quite a few Harlequin Ducks on Sage Rock.

There were some American Robins, a Hermit Thrush and a Red-breasted Sapsucker in the mixed trees on the way to the battlesite bench.

The gulls were still pretty sparse on the tideflats. The remains of the gull killed last night had washed up into the seaweed, though it was pretty much intact. The goshawk ate the body, but left the head, wings, and feet.

There were American Pipits and Savannah Sparrows on the beach between the Battlesite and the river. From the beach I warblers in the trees, though I never got a great look at them. I think one of them was an Orange-crowned Warbler, and I’m pretty sure another one was not, as it seemed much too bright. Presumably it was a Wilson’s Warbler or Yellow Warbler.

I heard some finches (crossbills or siskins, I’m sure) in the forest.

At frisbee we heard a couple of Belted Kingfishers and saw them fly over the lawn. There was also a Northern Flicker calling in one of the trees by NPH.

I spent most of the day inside, but went for a walk down to Totem Park this evening.

Weather: It felt chilly today, wtih temperatures in the upper-40s and pushing into the low-50s. It’s amazing how much difference 10 degrees makes in terms of how it feels to me. There were occasional light rain showers and some breeziness throughout the day, though it was calm on shore while I was at the park. It did appear that the wind was blowing out on the water, however.

Birds: There was some Song Sparrow activity around the neighborhood today. I heard a little bit of singing and saw some chasing.

There were gulls and several Harlequin Ducks on and around Sage Rock. I also heard a Song Sparrow or two around Sage Beach.

I saw a couple of gulls that I was not sure whether to think they were Thayer’s Gulls or Glaucous-winged x Western Gull hybrids. I think I will try to figure that out a little better this winter.

There were a few Black Turnstones at the park, but I did not stop to take a close look at them.

I saw a couple of sandpipers take off from the park, but never got a good look at them. They appeared about the size of Spotted Sandpipers (though it’s hard to say for sure, since I only saw them from a distance), did not have bold markings on their upper wings. Their flight included a lot of dodging and stuff. Actually, they reminded me of snipe, but I don’t usually associate snipe with tideflats.

I saw a couple of American Pipits near the battlesite and several Savannah Sparrows between the battlesite and the river. Out at the river mouth were several Mallards, and I think I saw at least a couple of Northern Pintails, though the light was getting dim.

The excitement of the day was seeing a Northern Goshawk take out a gull just at dusk. I watched it consume the gull on the flats as darkness settled. When the gull was taken, the gulls on the flats scattered. For a little while, many gulls circled above the goshawk and its prey, eventually thinning out. I did not see any gulls land anywhere on the flats (between the battlesite and the river mouth), despite the fact that the tide was out quite a distance and it was getting dark. Interesting things I noticed as it became dark were several flights of ducks coming in to the river mouth, and the impression that the gulls over at the river all stopped calling at the same time when it was nearly to darkness.

This morning I took Rowan to Swan Lake before dropping her off at preschool. It seemed like a nice day and it has been awhile since I was out kayaking, so I decided to go for a paddle. I ended up paddling over to the other side of Eastern Channel, over toward Cobb Island via the Twins. I did not get right up on the shore, but went a little bit towards Camp Coogan before paddling back past the green buoy to Totem Park, then along the shore to the hatchery.

It was probably the longest paddle I have done since I started kayaking a little more consistently last fall. Although on the way back it seemed like I was paddling through jello and making very little progress while I was out away from everything, my new skin on frame kayak must be at least a little faster than the other one I’ve paddled. Even though I stopped a few places to look at birds, I made it back from the other side of Eastern Channel to Sage Beach in under an hour. I did not have a GPS or anything, so I don’t know exactly how far it is, but I think it’s about three miles. I guess the feeling of making no progress happens when I’m far from everything and it’s more difficult to tell how far and/or fast I have actually gone.

Later this afternoon, Connor and I walked down to Totem Park.

Weather: It started out sunny, but high overcast moved in as the morning went on. I could still see a bright spot in the clouds for part of the time I was kayaking, but the skies became more uniform by the time I headed back. This afternoon when Connor and I were out, thicker, though less uniform, clouds had moved in. There was a little breeze blowing out of the Southeast when I was paddling out, but it had died down on my way back. It was interesting that there seemed to be little swell/surge when I left, but coming back three hours later, there was a much stronger wave action on the beach. The tide was coming in and was quite high when I returned, but I do not know if this had anything to do with the amount of wave action. It was actually fairly breezy when Connor and I were at the park early this evening. There was a little bit of rain this afternoon, then more consistent rain started falling later this evening.

Birds: At Swan Lake this morning there was an American Wigeon. I also saw a Hooded Merganser fly in and what I think was a Spotted Sandpiper (based on its size, color, and flight) trying to land on some of the remaining pond-lily leaves.

There were a few robins around the house this morning, but they did not seem to stick around long. I happened to catch the Steller’s Jay outside, and enticed it with some peanuts. It hopped within a couple of feet to grab peanuts that I had tossed down, but would not get any closer. Much like the jays last year (I do not know if this is one of the birds we saw last year), it will take the peanuts and cache them. Later in the day, I saw it retrieve a peanut it had cached in a hemlock branch and fly off to eat it.

Dark-eyed Juncos have returned to the neighborhood. They’ve probably been here awhile, but I finally paid attention to that fact today.

While kayaking I did not see too many birds. There were a few Murres on the town side of Eastern Channel and a few scattered gulls. I think i saw a White-winged Scoter flying out Eastern Channel, and I observed several Harlequins in a few different small flocks flying from the direction of the park towards the south as I was on my way to the Twins. On the way back, I saw four Surf Scoters off Jamestown Bay. There were quite a few Black-legged Kittiwakes off of Totem Park, and I saw one Marbled Murrelet off the park. I also saw several Pelagic Cormorants in Crescent Bay going and returning.

At the park this evening there were several Black Turnstones that let us approach fairly close without concern. We heard a few Chickadees in the forest, and there were lots of gulls scattered along the beach, most of them by the river mouth and in the estuary (the tide was out, so flats in the estuary were exposed). We did see the Slaty-backed Gull. I also saw the Ruddy Turnstone and 4 American Wigeons.

Mammals: There were several whales in two groups in Eastern Channel. The larger group was in toward the mouth of Silver Bay. The other group, which seemed to consist of two whales, was more out in the middle. I got much closer (though not too close for comfort, fortunately) to this smaller group. Either the group at the mouth of Silver Bay was not staying down nearly as long, or there were multiple whales staggering their breathing more, as I saw breath spouts far more often from that group. The two I was closest to would stay down for several minutes before coming up to breathe. They actually appeared to be heading out about the same time I started back to town. One of them went out Eastern Channel toward the sound, then a few minutes later the other one did also.

I saw a couple of Steller’s Sea Lions off the park when paddling back to town. There was a gray headed Harbor Seal not too far off the beach when Connor and I were there. (Which reminds me, I have been seeing seals from the park fairly often the last few weeks, but seem to forget to mention them in these entries.)

Other Notes: The tomato plant has been overtaken by the tides. I couldn’t find evidence of it when Connor and I were at the beach today.

I took Rowan to school this morning and we stopped at Swan Lake on the way. I took advantage of the nice weather to walk around the park. I spent a fair bit of time just sitting and enjoying the sun near the battle site, then as I was leaving, I saw Connor’s class and was encouraged to go on the field trip with them to learn about salmon. I spent a fair chunk of the of the afternoon sitting outside.

The sun is definitely getting lower in the sky. This afternoon I noticed that from our house, the sun was behind some of the neighborhood trees again. During the summer months, it is high enough in the sky to shine on the house throughout the day. I guess it’s the time of year when I really start to notice the instinctive desire to get as much sunlight as I can.

Weather: It was partly cloudy today. It was pretty calm this morning, but got a bit breezy this afternoon. Temperatures overnight were cooler. It was the first day I’ve seen fresh snow on the mountains this fall. The snow level appeared to be about 3300-3400 feet.

Birds: The Cackling Goose was at Swan Lake.

At Totem Park there were quite a few Savannah Sparrows.

The tide was out a fair bit when I was at the park, so the gulls were quite scattered. A couple of people walked out on the beach while I was stting, so what gulls were there flew on. I did not feel too motivated to check out all the gulls anyway, so I was content to just sit and soak up the sun. I watched a couple of ravens playing over and on the flats. At least I think they were playing. Just as they returned to the ground and started to feed on a salmon carcass, I heard a call that sounded a bit like a sandpiper. I looked and saw small-ish gray bird flying over the flats from the direction of Indian River. My first thought was ‘Spotted Sandpiper’, given the location, size, and color. However the shape and flight pattern was not quite right. I was able to get my binoculars on it and saw that it was a Fork-tailed Storm-petrel. It continued across the flats over to the large tidepool, then on over to finally land on the water just off the Crescent Harbor breakwater. Someone had reported seeing some between Crescent Harbor and Morne Island earlier in the week, so perhaps this was a straggler. It was interesting to see it coming from the river and flying over the flats (and not the water), as I had just had a conversation with someone yesterday about storm-petrels, and he said he had never seen them in close at Jamestown Bay (where he lives) or over land (except where they were nesting). I had mentioned hearing from a long-time Sitkan that when he was a kid, the storm-petrels would sometimes come and fly over the houses up off Crescent Bay during storms.

Around the neighborhood there were quite a few American Robins working on the Mountain Ash berries across from the house. I also saw a Varied Thrush or two.

There was a Winter Wren by the large neighborhood Sitka Spruce.

Other Notes: From the park, I could see several Humpback Whales out in Eastern Channel and towards the mouth of Silver Bay.

I took a look at the large neighborhood spruce and saw that a squirrel has taken up residence. It appears to have dug a couple of holes under the tree and has littered the ground with spruce cone scales. It chattered at me for most of the 20 or more minutes that I sat near the tree.