Neighborhood Blackbird

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This morning I took a little time to check things out at Starrigavan. I didn’t spend much time looking, but did see a flock of shorebirds out on the flats near the water (the tide was out pretty far with a -1 tide predicted for this morning). I came back in and took a quick look around Eagle Way Beach as well – I didn’t see as many shorebirds as I had noticed yesterday (though I also didn’t spend as much time looking as closely), but today I did see Marbled Godwits (which had apparently flown off before I looked around yesterday).

When I arrived back home, I was walking across the yard and was a little surprised to hear a Red-winged Blackbird calling from nearby. I asked Rowan (who was sitting out on the deck) if she had heard it, she said “oh, the blackbird? It was just in the tree here, but moved somewhere over that way.” as she gestured off to the south. I walked over to Biorka Street and spent a few minutes following it from tree to tree (it seemed to favor mountain ash, for some reason). I heard it again later in the day in the backyard of a Biorka Street house. I’ve only ever heard or seen them before at Swan Lake or Starrigavan here in Sitka, so it was interesting to have one away from wet/marshy areas.

Weather today was once again sunny. It was calm for the first part of the day, and the temperature got up to 60, but by this afternoon a pretty good northwest breeze (maybe a sea breeze?) came up and the temperatures dropped down to the mid-50s. Still a nice warm day for this time of year.

I spent some time up Blue Lake road helping out with some invasive plant surveys. Still early in the season, but continued to find expected things like buttercups and dandelions mostly, with a couple of other things thrown in as well. There was a pair of Red-throated Loons on Blue Lake, and I heard my first of season Wilson’s Warbler at the beginning of Blue Lake road on our way out.

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