A friend of mine who works for UAS invited me to go on an outing to Kruzof Island to hike Mt. Edgecumbe. They had chartered a boat as part of a wellness activity, and the UAS people were allowed to invite someone to come along. It was a good trip, and I will probably write up a couple of separate entries to get into more detail about some of the things I saw.

Weather: It started out overcast with some clouds up and down on the top of Mt. Edgecumbe. The last time we saw the top was about 6 miles up the trail. While making the final ascent, a misty rain started and continued for an hour or two. The clouds lifted a little bit, and there were a couple of small breaks, but it stayed overcast. Apparently the weather in town was rainy for most of the day.

Birds: Riding over to Fred’s Creek and back reminded me of all the seabirds I have not been seeing this year since I have not been on a boat at all. I saw Murres, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Tufted Puffins, Pelagic Cormorants, Rhinocerous Auklets, and Red-necked Phalaropes. Of particular note was a large gathering of these birds not too far from Fred’s Creek while on our way back.

When we arrived, I saw a small flock of small sandpipers, but didn’t have time to investigate more closely. While waiting for the boat, I saw a single Semipalmated Plover, several Black Turnstones, a couple of Wandering Tattlers, and a Spotted Sandpiper.

The highlight of the day was a Sandhill Crane that I heard and then observed on the way back down.

While above the trees, I heard some calls that sounded strange. There’s an outside chance I was hearing the crane calling from a long distance away, but I’m not sure.

Flora: There were a few plants still blooming on the beach, in the muskegs and in the alpine, including Lady’s Tresses, Apargidium, Subalpine Daisy, Partridgefoot, and Beach Pea. I also saw a couple of slime molds. I’ll do a more detailed write up of my plant observations in a separate post.

Other Notes: Conditions were pretty good for looking at animal tracks. I will write a separate entry on these.

The people who had stayed at the cabin reported seen 4 bears early in the morning. There was an obvious trail of a sow and cub that went down the beach. We also saw lots of droppings along the first half mile or so of trail. Some of the droppings were almost entirely made up of blueberries, but others appeared to include fish.

Pink Salmon were running up Fred’s Creek. Some of the fish I saw looked like they had gone through encounters with predators, but managed to escape with only the loss of some (presumably) non-essential flesh.

The section of Fred’s Creek just above the hightide line is interesting to explore. The creek travels through basalt from old lava flows. The erosion of this rock formation has created channels much different than on rivers along the Sitka road system. There narrow channels with deep pools were particularly interesting to me.

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.

Yesterday my brother and I hiked up the Middle Sister and back on the ridge to the North Sister. We did not go up the North Sister, though we did contemplate doing so. In the end, it was probably better that we didn’t. (More about the hike)

Weather: It was sunny and warm yesterday and today. Temperatures yesterday topped out at about 75 degrees and it was not quite as warm today. Fortunately for us yesterday, there was enough breeze on the mountain ridge, that it actually felt kind of cool. While hiking up the trail a couple of times, we experienced very warm pockets of air. I suspect this is where the air above the trees which had been warmed by the sun was mixing with the cooler air trapped beneath the canopy. Both days winds were calm in the morning, then picked up during the day, before settling down in the evening.

Birds: We did not see much in the way of birds on the way up the valley, though there were some tracks in a muskeg puddle that appeared to be from a duck.

On the way up the Middle Sister I heard a bird that sounded like an odd wimpy eagle whistle. At first I thought it might be Jonathan whistling at me (we had gotten a little bit separated), but after it flew off and landed in a different tree, I was able to see that it was a Harlan’s Red-tail Hawk. It continued to call, and then a little later I heard the more well known ‘creee’ call from a second hawk. I think this one may not have been a Harlan’s Hawk.

When we made it above the trees, and stopped to rest for a bit, I noticed a smallish bird that I think might have been a raptor. If so, it was probably a Merlin or Kestrel, but then again, it may have just been a thrush.

Other birds we saw in the alpine were Orange-crowned Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Dark-eyed Juncos, and four American Pipits. We also found some interesting tracks in the mud at the edge of an alpine ridge puddle. I think they were from a shore bird, but I do not know which species.

Flora: There was not too much in the way of flowers until we were headed down the backside of the ridge into the headwaters of Indian River. The northeasterly aspect of the slopes here probably resulted in a later spring. Of particular note were Bog Swertia, Fringed Grass-of-Parnassus, Butterwort, and White Rein Orchids.

Down by the falls it appeared that some flowers were just coming into bloom. The one I noticed mostly was an arnica. It appears that there are 4 arnica species in the Sitka area, and I am as yet uncertain how to identify them, so I may try to get back up there in the next week or two when these will (hopefully) be in full bloom.

I noticed Self-heal growing a couple of different places along the trail. I had not noticed it on Indian River Trail before.

Other Notes: There was lots of evidence of bear activity on the back side of the ridge. Many piles of scat, and places where vegetation had evidently been walked over and/or eaten.

While hiking back on the trail, we heard some loud roaring coming from some distance away. Our best guess is that a couple of bears were really getting after each other over in the lower muskeg, but we didn’t take the time to investigate.

Near the bridge over the stream that comes from the fen, I was walking about 20 feet in front of Jonathan, and stopped when I heard something going away from me in the bushes. I could not see it, but Jonathan had a better vantage point and I asked him if it was a deer (which is typically what I’ve seen running away). It was not a deer, but rather a small bear. He thought it might have been about 3 feet tall at the shoulder.

There were recently emerged dragonflies in the muskeg below the Middle Sister. I was wishing I had time to stop and get some photos, but had to settle for a couple of quick pictures of one teneral I found that was sticking to a sundew (I helped it off the sundew after getting its picture).

One of the falls we could see coming down from the ridge between the Right Sister and Arrowhead was illuminated like a rainbow for a while. I guess we had good timing to see it, as I suspect it only shows up that way for a short period of time (when viewed from a given location, anyway).

There is large boulder well up beyond the falls. It’s orangish-red in color and I remember seeing it many years ago while hiking on the ridges behind the Middle Sister. At the time, I wanted to go back to investigate closer, but still haven’t made it. Maybe seeing it again will help me feel a little more motivated.

Yesterday evening and early this afternoon I went for short kayaking outings on Crescent Bay. Later in the afternoon, I went to Sage Beach with Jonathan, Connor and Rowan, and we did some wading and swimming (the kids had done some of that with Melissa earlier in the afternoon as well, when I had gone kayaking).

Weather: Yesterday was partly cloudy. In the evening (coincidentally, right around the time I went kayaking) there were some pretty heavy downpours. Today was sunny and very warm.

Birds: There were several Marbled Murrelets not far off the beach at the park yesterday. Today I saw a couple, but not as many.

While kayaking yesterday, I saw some shorebirds flying away from the park. There were some peeps and a couple of larger shorebirds, but I am not sure what species they were.

Other Notes: The pink salmon have congregated along the shore again. Perhaps a new wave of them has moved in.

On my little swim around Sage Rock, I found the water was actually warmer about 6 inches below the surface. I suspect that was due to the freshwater coming out of the hatchery being on the surface. As there is a fair bit of cold water flowing out, and freshwater is less dense than saltwater, the surface stayed cool.