The snow’s been deep and I’ve been fighting a cold, so I have not spent too much time outside the last couple of days, though Thursday night I did get the chance to tag along looking for screech owls.

Weather: The forecast has continually called for rain and snow, but we’ve just been getting snow here. It’s now over a foot deep in the open areas. Temperatures have been in the lower 30s.

Birds: I noticed some Pine Siskins in the alders behind our house on Friday. Thursday morning I saw Dark-eyed Juncos foraging in the alders down near the hatchery. With the deep snow, I’m guessing it’s pretty difficult for ground feeders to find much to eat.

Thursday night I went with Michelle Kissling and Steve Lewis, biologists from Juneau, to watch their efforts to catch an owl (a local high school student is planning to study owls for his senior project). We saw at least two of them, and they were successful getting one. Students told me they often see owls near the flume by Rasmusson around 10pm.

Today I noticed some feathers floating down in the backyard, so I went outside to investigate. As best I could tell, they were screech owl feathers. I saw a raven with something up in the trees between our house and the maintanence building. I think the Raven probably had a wing, though I don’t know that the raven actually did the killing. I’ll try to find out for sure if the feathers are from a screech owl.

Other Notes: There was a hole with melted snow around near the top of the hill beside Hillcrest Drive immediately behind the Maintenance building. I am guessing a squirrel is down in the hole, though I did not notice tracks going to and from it. Maybe there is another entrance. It’s also possible that the ground is warmer than freezing, so relatively warm air was venting and melting the snow.

Wednesday night when I was out sledding with Connor and Rowan, I saw a moth flying around. It seemed a little late (and chilly) for that, but someone else mentioned seeing quite a few moths in the last few days, so I guess this wasn’t the only one.

I took a walk down to New Thompson Harbor today with a stop by Swan Lake on the way home. The folks in the harbor seemed especially friendly today, as a number of them stopped to visit for a bit.

Weather: It was partly cloudy with winds picking up through the day. Winds were out of the Southeast and the forecast was for a wind advisory tonight. By late this evening it was definitely windy outside. Temperatures were in the 30s during the day, but warmed up to over 40 as the wind picked up this evening.

Birds: Near the Lincoln Street playground, there were several Chestnut-backed Chickadees and Golden-crowned Kinglets foraging in the spruce trees. I was able to get some good looks at both of them before I continued on my walk.

Birds of note today at New Thompson Harbor included a juvenile Greater-white Fronted Goose feeding on the lawns around the parking lot, a Common Murre feeding in the water between fingers of the dock, a Marbled Murrelet close to the dock, several loons, Pelagic Cormorants, Long-tailed Ducks, Common Mergansers, and lots of gulls. I was told by someone of the people that live in the harbor, that Great Blue Herons come and perch on the boats sometimes.

On my walk down Katlian Street, there were 30 or so scaups in a small cove, presumably ducking out of the wind. I saw several more flying over toward the channel a little later. Near the cove, there was also a heron perched on the wing of a float plane.

At Swan Lake there were two American Coots, 6 American Wigeons, and several gulls along with the usual assortment of Mallards. The lake was mostly frozen and the scaups I had seen there previously were not in sight. They probably moved out to the channel with the freezing of the lake.

Flora: The more I walk around, the more trees and shrubs I notice that have not lost their leaves. As common as it seems this year, I can’t believe I would have missed it in previous years. This makes me think that this year is unusual in this regard. The only thing I can think of is that with the cold spring and cool summer, the plants did not store up as much energy as they might have liked and were holding on to leaves a little longer.

Other Notes: I saw three river otters playing and sunning themselves near the Bill Brady Healing House along Katlian Street. I was upwind of them as I approached. A couple of times they looked in my direction and sniffed the air, but then went back to what they were doing. Finally, one saw me moving and it took off. The others followed after it. When I went over to look where they were, I saw a mink down in the rocks near the water.

There were at least a couple of sea lions in the harbor when I was there.

It warmed up enough this evening that there was a moth which came to the window of my office. I’m not sure where it hid out during the cold weather.