Today was easily the warmest day that I have experienced in Sitka so far this summer.  I had two tours to work today, with the first landing near Pt. Brown and the second a trip south with a landing at Calligan Island.

Weather:  Sunny and warm, with light wind.

Birds:  I saw a flock of about 4 large shorebirds flying over Crescent Harbor around the time of our first departure.  Between tours I saw another fly over just outside of Crescent Harbor.  I do not know for sure what they were, but I suspect they were yellowlegs.

I saw several flocks of what I believe were Red-necked Phalaropes.

There was a black and white alcid that I think may have been an Ancient Murrelet, though I did not get a good enough look at it to be sure.

It looked like the young eagles were starting to fledge at the nest in the Kasiana Islands.

Flora:  At Point Brown, the group I was with seemed determined to hike back in the woods, so we ended up making it back to the muskeg.  The flowers seemed to be mostly finished where we saw, but there were a few apargidium flowers still hanging on.

At Calligan Island I noticed crow berries ripe on some of the taller rock outcrops on the beach that were covered by moss and crowberry plants.

Other Notes:  There were a couple of sizable rafts of sea otters near Fragrant Island.

Several humpback whales were still active near Vitskari.

We watched a couple of seiners fishing for socky at the entrance to Redoubt Bay.  The net we saw pulled in did not produce a large haul, but it did have quite a few fish in it.

There were several sets of deer tracks in the sand at Pt. Brown beach.

Today was my first day as a naturalist on board an Allen Marine Tour. I am working a couple of days a week for the remainder of the summer. As far as I know, I will primarily be working on the Captain’s Choice tour. This is a three hour tour for up to 16 people that includes about an hour on the beach somewhere out of town. When there are three tours, as there was today, it makes for a very long day, but it is fun to get out and see some places and things I do not otherwise have the chance to visit. Today we went south of town for each of the three tours. The first tour we visited the beach near Frosty Reef, the other two we went to Calligan Island.

Weather: The morning started out overcast with a little breeze. By mid morning it was starting to clear off and the breeze had died down somewhat. As the day went on, it continued to clear off, but the wind picked up again. The wind seemed to be blowing out of the North or Northwest.

Birds: I saw many murrelets and one murre. Near Calligan Island there must have been some feed near the surface as there was a flock of gulls gathered and acting like they were findind something to eat.

There was a Red-breasted Sapsucker nest with calling young on the point across the spit from Calligan Island. I also heard what I think were a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers. They were active enough I wondered if there was a nest in the area.

Flora: The coralroot orchids are well into their blooming. Though there are many flowers, single-delights seem to be nearing the end of their blooming. Cleavers are abundant on the beaches we visited south of town.

Marine Mammals: We were able to see humpback whales, including some pretty good views of the tail flukes as they were diving.

We were able to observe a raft of Sea Otters as well as many individuals scattered throughout the south part of the sound.

Quite a few harbor seals were hauled out on rocks at one point as well, though I do not know which island/rocks it was.

Invertebrates: One of the tour passengers found a mussel shell that was about 6 inches long. This was a california mussel. These are not typically found around town as they prefer a location with heavy surf.

I took a couple of other folks out on a hike up the West Fork of Indian River valley today. Our intention was to visit the large hemlock tree my brother showed me a couple of
years ago.

Weather: It started out cloudy, with the cloud layer at around 2000 feet. By around noon the clouds had started breaking up, and sunny skies prevailed throughout the rest of the day. There was a good breeze, though I failed to note the direction.

Birds: The woods were much quieter than last time I went up Indian River. There were a number of juvenile birds, including Winter Wrens, Varied Thrush, and what I think was a Hermit Thrush.

One of my hiking companions had to head back early and told me later that he had found a hawk feather on his way back. He thought it was from either a Sharp-shinned Hawk or juvenile Goshawk.

As has been the case quite often in recent days, there were eagles active around the neighborhood. One even spent some time perched in a relatively small tree right across from the house.

Flora: Flowers blooming included Heart-leaved Twayblade, Ground Dogwood, Mountain Arnica, plantanthera orchids, and a few others I do not recall right now.

The most interesting plant experience for me was probably the discovery of many patches of Goblin’s Gold moss. I did not have my tripod, so I could not get very good photos of it, but many of the root wads from overturned trees had it growing on them.

We did measure the hemlock tree to be over 100 inches in diameter. In addition to this, we measured a few spruce trees that seemed fairly large. The largest of those we measured was over 90 inches in diameter.

There was a white slime mold in evidence on the trunk of a tree that had fallen down some time ago.

Enchanter’s Nightshade is a small plant that forms a ground cover in some places. It was abundant throughout the hike today, though in one place there was a small area with none growing in it, though it was growing all around. The patch of ground was not totally bare, but it definitely did not have many plants growing in it compared to ground just adjacent. There was not a clear reason that I could see for this to be the case.

Invertebrates: In the middle sister muskeg where I previously observed emerging dragonflies there were many adult dragonflies and damselflies in evidence. I was puzzled somewhat by how small they seemed to be. I am pretty sure the newly emerged dragonflies I saw before were Hudsonian Whitefaces, and today there were definitely many of these flying around. However, the ones flying around today seemed distinctly smaller than what I had seen before. I also noticed this effect with a couple of Four-spotted Skimmers. My best guess is that when their exoskeleton dries, it shrinks somewhat. I previously observed them just just after emergence, so perhaps they were still not completely dried out.

Also in the middle sister muskeg, we had some fun looking at the critters in the puddles. I pulled out a large caddisfly encased in its larval home. Apparently these insect larva build their home with miniture logs which they extrude after processing plant fibers. They are able to stick them together to make a long tube in which they live.

In addition to the many different creatures living below, I happened to notice a spider running across the surface of a puddle. This was not something I remembered seeing before.

This evening the kids brought in a large dark colored moth they had found in the back yard. It seemed unable to fly, though I do not know why. Its underwings were more of an orangish color.

Mammals: As has been the case most times that I have been up this way, there was relatively fresh bear sign. We saw some tracks and places where skunk cabbage had been uprooted, but more significantly there was some pieces deer hide (that did not look too old, the hair did not seem to be coming out yet). Near the deer hide was a place at the base of a tree that looked like it had been dug up and recovered recently. We took that as a sign to keep moving.

There were a few different locations that looked like deer beds.