As the semester is winding down, it seems my work days are getting a little busier. It didn’t help that the warming weather made conditions a little sloppy, I’ve been continuing to fight off a cold, and Melissa spent the day yesterday writing and working on ceramics. However, today I did get out and go for a hike up to the West Valley of Indian River. It was a good trip with Scott the director of the outdoor center on campus, and Matt, a student. When we were first talking about the trip, there was so much snow it seemed likely that we would need snowshoes. This morning it was a balmy 44 degrees or so, and there had been a lot of melting that took place in the last 36 hours, so we decided to forgo snowshoes. As it turned out, that was a pretty good decision. They were not necessary and would have been annoying to carry. We went up to visit the big hemlock tree. We ended up taking one of the most direct routes I have managed to it. It took us a little over 2 hours to get up there and probably an hour and a half or so to get back.

Weather: Temperatures have climbed the last couple of days. Today they managed to stay in the low-to-mid 40’s. The forecast called for some pretty strong winds this morning, but they must have died down before I got up and out a little before 8am. There was some wind in the valley as we hiked, but not a lot. Every so often while we were hiking it felt like we would walk through an exceptionally warm spot. This seemed to occur primarily near openings in the forest. After we discussed it for a bit, we concluded that it must be eddies of warmer air that were mixing with the cooler air near ground level. Since we were in the forest, the trees probably kept the warmer air that had moved in with the front from mixing easily with the colder air underneath the trees. This was probably aided by the fact that cool air is more dense than warm air.

Birds: I have been hearing people talk about a heron at the flume lately, but until this morning, I had not seen it. We were planning to meet at Rasmuson and I got there a little early, so I wandered over to the flume. The bird was unexpectedly tolerant of people walking by. I would not have known this, except someone walked by while I was standing some distance away. After that, I walked up on the bridge and the bird just ignored me. I did see the heron catch a couple of fish while I was watching.

There were several eagles along the river as we were walking up, especially the west fork. They were there to eat the coho salmon that are still remaining in the river.

There was a flock of Pine Siskins (possibly with Redpolls mixed in?) in the alders near the water treatment facility by the trailhead.

Other Notes:

I had not previously noticed just how deeply rotted the large hemlock tree is. I don’t think it could be cored and aged accurately at all. Clearly the rot doesn’t go all the way through, but it does go well into the middle of the tree; it almost made me wonder if it could be hollowed out to make a My Side of the Mountain style dwelling. It might still be a bit small for me, but probably for someone shorter, it might work.

We saw the remains of a couple of salmon near the river and a couple more still swimming. One set of remains was basically blood and colored snow where the eggs had been. The other was a partially eaten fish. I did not realize there were still fish up here this late in the year, but I guess I am not surprised since last year there were lots of them lower down in the river the second week of November.

There were some recent deer tracks in the snow in many places in the west valley. There was also a bit of a deer trail that we followed, though enough melting had occured in the last couple of days that individual tracks were not evident. In a couple of locations we found places where it looked like a deer had curled up and layed down. The snow was partially melted out in a circular shape with the center having a little less melt than the rest. I gave a quick look for deer hair, but was not able to see any. Maybe they don’t give up their hair easily in winter. There were not any tracks leading up to or away from the spot except for a set that went through it. They seemed to have pretty clearly been made well after the snow was melted out. Of course, with all the melt that has occured, I suppose the deer could have laid their a day or two ago and it’s tracks would have been pretty much gone.

I did not get out too much today, but did walk around campus a little bit to see what I could see.

Weather: It’s still clear and cold, but not quite as cold as it has been. The forecast is for increasing clouds and temperatures tomorrow with highs reaching the 40s by the end of the week. It’s going to get slippery in a hurry if that happens.

Birds: I heard about a dead bird on Westwood Trail, so I went up to check it out. The remains consisted entirely of feathers, but there were a lot of feathers. I think it was the pheasant seen last week, but I do not know what might have killed it.

On my way back, I saw a dipper flying and splashing in the flume near just after passes under the street.

There was a Brown Creeper pretty active on the trees near the flume later this afternoon. I got within a couple of feet of it. It seemed to be staying low on the tree trunks it was foraging on. Usually they go up high and I loose sight of them. Another difference in behavior I noticed was that it kept repeatedly using the same tree; moving down on the trunk and then working back up again.

While watching the creeper, I heard a Red-breasted Sapsucker and caught a glimpse of it flying over.

While walking up along the flume, I noticed what I am pretty sure is a bird’s nest fairly high up in a Mt. Ash tree that is barely surviving in the middle of the stand of evergreens near the firepit.

Other Notes: There was a deer track in the snow near the flume (on the trail that runs along the edge up from the bridge by Yaw).

I saw at least a couple of coho salmon in the flume. They were looking pretty dark, but it’s interesting to see that they are still in there this late. I had never really noticed that before.

It’s interesting to see how much less the water in the river has frozen this fall as compared to last March. The air temperatures have not been quite as cold as the 6 day stretch in March, but highs have still been well below freezing. Whereas in March, the surface of the flume water was frozen both above and below the falls. Where the stream tumbles down a brief cascade shortly before it meets up with Indian River, there
were sizable ice formations that had formed. During this cold snap, there is just a little bit of ice at the edge of the flume, but very little ice on the surface otherwise. Presumably this is because the river water is still relatively warm from summer. I would not have guessed that it would make that much difference. I may check to see if someone has long term stream temperature data to see how it changes over the year.

I have been busy with a number of different things over the last couple of weeks and have not managed to make time to keep up with the updates of daily observations. Over this time, I have managed to get out a few times, including a couple of kayaking trips to Crescent Bay, and a trip or two to Starrigavan Estuary. I may write a couple of entries and back date them if I can remember enough of any of these trips that seems like it might worth keeping a record of here.

Weather: Despite October’s fierce reputation for inclement weather, I seems like there may have already been more ‘nice’ days this month than in August and September combined. (Where ‘nice’ means significant sunshine or at least very minimal rain during the day. Warm temperatures are good too.) There certainly have been some rainy days, but on a number of those days, temperatures hit the upper 50’s and it seemed kind of nice with the warmth.

Birds: The peak of fall migration seems to be behind us. I have not seen any warblers for the last week or two. I see an occasional Hermit Thrush, and the number of sparrows of all types (except for resident Song Sparrows) has dropped significantly.

Interesting birds I have seen around the house the last week or so have included a Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, and a Brown Creeper.

The Steller’s Jays are still coming for peanuts. For a week or so there was only one, but a couple of days ago a second one reapeared. The second was far more bold, and I think it may have been the bird that we first started feeding peanuts. I am not sure why it disappeared for awhile, but it did seem to have a droopy left wing when it was perched. I did not notice any problems with its flight, however.

I do not know if this is an unusual year for kittiwakes, or I’m just getting out on the water a little more, but I’ve regularly seen a number of different Black-legged Kittiwakes this fall.

I have also seen a number more non-Bald Eagle raptors than I am used to. In addition to the Sharp-shinned Hawk I saw at the end of September, I have seen what I think is a Merlin a couple of different times as I drove back toward town from the Airport (near the long term parking area). Yesterday it was the young Red-tail Hawk (which we caught a glimpse of today as well). Today there was a young Northern Harrier on Harbor Mountain and another raptor that was too far away for me to tell with certainty (though I’m pretty sure it was not an eagle).

Flora: Plants are definitely responding to the diminishing daylight. Pond-lilies on Swan Lake are largely gone. Mt. Ash trees and the willow in the back yard have yellow leaves that have started to fall. The alders seem to be putting up a fight, as leaves have been slow to drop. Perhaps with the late start they got this spring, they are trying to get everything they can out of these fall days.

Despite the late season, I did notice some yarrow still blooming along Blue Lake Road a couple of days ago.

Other Notes: There are still a few nearly dead pink and/or chum salmon in the lower stretches of Indian River, but most of them seem to be gone. Though I haven’t gone to look for myself, students have told me that there are quite a few silvers in some of the holes a little up river, however.

A couple of different students told me about seeing a pod of Orca come pretty close to shore at Whale Park last week. That would have been pretty neat to see. It reminds me of the thought I try to remember when I’m unmotivated to get out and feeling like there’s probably not much to see anyway: ‘The only thing you can guarantee about seeing interesting things in nature is that you won’t see anything if you don’t get out.’ I suppose the corollary is that the more you get out, the more you will see.

I kept fairly busy with school stuff today and was trying to ignore the evening sunshine but finally gave in and went for a walk down to Totem Park. The tide was up fairly high, but going out. It was probably around the 9 foot level.

Weather: Cloudy for most of the day, partial clearing this evening. There were periods of rain and a pretty nice rainbow as the sun broke through about an hour and a half before sunset.

Birds: There were at least a couple of Harlequin Ducks on Sage Rock this evening.

I saw about a dozen Black Turnstones scattered along the beach. Most of the ones I saw were up near the high tide line until I came around, then they moved down toward the water.

I saw a single Spotted Sandpiper along the lower stretch of Indian River (part of the estuary, actually).

There were quite a few warblers in the branches at the edge of the forest and many Savannah Sparrows foraging along the upper
part of the beach.

Several hundred gulls were on shore, in the bay, up the river, and flying all around. I saw one that I think might be a California Gull.

On a couple of occasions I saw a large group of gulls take off and a moment or two later a Bald Eagle flew over. In each case the eagle did not look like it was trying too hard to get a gull, but maybe if one had not been paying attention it would have been a little more serious.

I just missed getting a photo of an immature eagle trying to pull a salmon out of the water.

Other Notes: There are lots of dead fish on the beach now.

There was a crazy Giant Vetch plant blooming at the south end of the park along the beach. Normally vetch blooms pretty early in the summer. I do not know what was going on with this one.