Sitka Nature

I went to Swan Lake this morning, then took a quick walk around Totem Park before picking Rowan up from preschool.

Weather: Mostly cloudy with a little bit of sun this morning. Winds were calm.

Birds: At Swan Lake I saw two American Coots, a Cackling Goose, several scaups, probably some Ring-necked Ducks, and (the highlight of the day) a Pied-billed Grebe. Also while I was at the lake, I noted a Ruby-crowned Kinglet foraging in the nearby bushes and trees.

On the way to Totem Park I saw about 90 shorebirds on Sage Rock, evenly split between Surfbirds and Black Turnstones. Also there were several Harlequin Ducks, some gulls, a couple of Common Mergansers, a Double-crested Cormorant, and a Pelagic Cormorant. A Great-blue Heron was perched on one of the pilings at the outflow to the hatchery.

At Totem Park I saw some Surf Scoters and a couple of Buffleheads off shore. I saw what I am pretty sure was a falcon flying from the direction of the river along the shore out over Crescent Bay. A crow momentarily gave chase, and I saw the falcon was at least as large or larger than the crow. This would suggest that (assuming falcon is correct) it was a Peregrine Falcon or a Gyrfalcon. Given location, it would almost certainly be a Peregrine Falcon. I did not get a great look at it, but the bird did seem quite dark. It over toward the islands, made a brief, half-hearted attempt at a storm-petrel along the way, then turned toward Morne Island and, as best as I could tell, it landed in the trees there.

At the river mouth I saw another pair of Buffleheads.

Other Notes: I noticed a Yarrow in bloom on the rocks above Sage Beach. I also noticed that the Villous Cinquefoil all seemed to have small new green leaves and all of the larger leaves (presumably from spring and summer) were brown and dead. I have not previously noticed new fall growth, though it certainly would not surprise me if it were typical. It seems starnge that the plants would invest energy in new leaves this time of year, however.

Today’s photos come from a morning primarily from a stop by Swan Lake. A little later I went to Totem Park and took a picture of the shorebirds on Sage Rock.

[View with PicLens]

When I first arrived on the penninsula at Swan Lake this morning, it seemed pretty quite. The usual crowd of domestic Mallards and followers were down near the outlet stream, and there were just a few Mallards on the penninsula. These seemed unusually flighty, or perhaps my mood was such that I seemed more threatening than normal. On my first look around the lake, I noticed a few scaups, but none of the other less common birds that have been on the lake in recent days/weeks. I wondered if the coots were still there, and on a second look, I saw one resting in the weeds on south side of the penninsula. I also noticed quite a few scaups at the upper end of the lake. It was too far to tell, but I think there were probabaly Ring-necked Ducks in the mix as well.

In the past, I have found that spending a few minutes waiting will often reveal birds I might not have otherwise seen. Sometimes they fly in while I’m there, other times it seems that I just somehow overlooked them at first. The benches were wet, so I just stood around waiting and watching.

After a little while I saw a bird south of the penninsula moving around in the remains of the pond-lilies. My first impression was the head looked like the first-year Hooded Mergansers I had seen before. My first look at the bill was a firm rebuff of that idea, however. I realized then that I was looking at a Pied-billed Grebe. Though I had never seen one before, I knew what they looked like from repeated forays in the bird guides.

In hindsight, I think the ‘resting coot’ I thought I saw was probably a resting grebe, as shortly after noticing the grebe, I saw the two coots that have been on the lake down toward the lower end of the lake. They do have similar body shapes, though when they are swimming about, it’s pretty easy to tell them apart. I think my expectations are the main reason I was able to initially miss the new-to-me bird.

I spent a half hour or so watching the grebe swim around in the shallows. It seemed very effective at swimming underwater. I could usually follow its rapid progress underwater by the movement of emergent vegetation it passed. On several occasions when it popped back up to the surface, it had a small fish in its bill.

After fishing, stopping to do some preening, and then some more fishing, the grebe settled in to rest. When it tucked bill under wing, it almost seemed to disappear. Although it was not overly far from where I was standing and I knew where it was, I still needed the binoculars to pick out where it was resting among the pond-lily stems, marestail, and sedges.

For more information about Pied-billed Grebes in the Sitka area and additional photos of this bird see Sitka Birds: Pied-billed Grebe (scroll to the bottom of the page for the photos).