Managed to get out on the kayak for most of the morning. Later in the day went for a drive to both ends of the road. Despite the chill, the sun was appreciated.

Weather: Today was the first mostly sunny day in at least a couple of weeks. It was in the upper 30’s around 9am and it looked like there might be frost on the roof. Winds were calm and temperatures climbed up into the 50’s later in the day. It felt quite warm on the water with the sun reflecting off the calm surface. There was fresh snow on some of the mountains. It looked like the snow probably fell down to about 2400 feet or so, but it was difficult to tell for sure.

Birds: One of the main reasons I wanted to get out on the kayak was to try to get a photo of a Fork-tailed Storm-petrel. Unfortunately, I did not get a good photo, but I saw lots of them. A couple of them even came close enough to me that I just about could have reached out and grabbed them.

I saw lots of gulls at the park, there were a dozen or more Greater Scaups, quite a few Scoters (most and maybe all were Surf Scoters), and Harlequin Ducks out off the river mouth.

The only other ducks I saw were one Teal and a few mallards. There were many more a couple of days ago, so I guess they were
either hiding well up in the grass or perhaps they have moved on with the nicer weather.

There were quite a few Kittiwakes flying and floating around Crescent Bay. I took a picture of one at the mouth of Indian River that I assumed was a Black-legged Kittiwake, but a close look at the photo seems to suggest that it may be a Red-legged Kittiwake.

There were four Common Mergansers opposite the river mouth. I have not seen very many of these birds this fall. I am not sure whether this is a typical pattern, or if usually there are more around at this time of year.

There was a Pigeon Guillemot cruising around the bay. I think it may have been a juvenile, but I am not sure.

When I came back in to Sage Beach, there were a couple of dozen Surfbirds on Sage Rock along with a few Black Turnstones. These are the first Surfbirds I have seen since last spring. There were also a couple of Double-crested Cormorants, a Pelagic Cormorant, many Gulls and four Harlequin Ducks.

Othern Notes: I saw a seal not too far offshore at Totem Park. I kind of wonder if it has taken up residence in the area and is the same one I have been seeing when I walk through the park.

Leaves are turning color on the Mt. Ash and to a lesser extant on the Crabapple trees. Most of the leaves are still on the trees, though they are definitely starting to fall. Devil’s Club leaves are yellowing and falling off.

I did manage to get in a short walk through the park today early in the afternoon and a more leisurely walk through later in the evening.

Weather: It was fairly wet today with a little bit of wind.

Birds: I saw quite a few birds today. There were lots of sparrows around the neighborhood, including Fox Sparrows, Song Sparrows, several Golden-crowned Sparrows, and Savannah Sparrows.

As I was leaving home after a mid-morning snack/brunch, I happened to hear an odd call. I decided to investigate and eventually figured out that it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk. I spent half an hour or so watching it and the Steller’s Jay that has been coming for peanuts.

Later in the afternoon, when I went to the park for the second time, I stopped to look at a Northern Flicker in the alders near the battle site when I caught some motion out of the corner of my eye. I looked up to see a Sharp-shinned Hawk land in the alders. It flew off toward the beach before I could get a photo. However, I did go out to the beach and got there just after a flock of Black Turnstones flushed and flew down the shoreline. I think the hawk may have made an attempt at them. A little later, while I was looking at ducks in the estuary, I saw the hawk chasing a Kingfisher. It also chased after a small bird, probably a Savannah Sparrow. I never did see it catch anything. I think it was the same bird that was around our neighborhood earlier in the day.

There was a Marbled Godwit out on the flats during my first walk through the park, but I did not see it the second trip.

There were several Green-winged Teal and American Wigeons in the estuary along with the Mallards and lots of gulls.

Other birds I saw today included several Fork-tailed Storm-petrels still out in Crescent Bay, an Oragne-crowned Warbler in front of Stratton Library, Harlequin Ducks and both Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants out off of Sage Beach and some Winter Wrens in the park.

Other Notes: It looks like a deer nibbled on the leaves of my carrots.

On my second trip through the park, I saw a seal up in the river. The tide was in fairly far, so the water was deep, but it was definitely in the river channel.

I saw at least one squirrel that looked like it was eating alder cones. They are pretty green still, but maybe that’s the best time for the squirrels to get the seeds out.

On the second tour I had today, we pulled up near the rocks a little South of Povorotni Point in the opening of Redoubt Bay to observe the Harbor Seals. Perhaps it was the relatively bright weather, but it seemed like there was an unusually rich assortment of colors and patterns of seal fur. This fit in nicely with one of the things I like to tell the passengers about seals. It is relatively uncommon for there to be significant difference in appearance between individuals in a species. It is somtimes possible to identify individuals based on subtle differences, and there are often signficant juvenile/adult or male/female differences, but for the most part the overall coloring of an animal within a specific population group will be very similar. This is not the case with harbor seals. Until this job with Allen Marine, I had not had much opportunity to see seals hauled out and had never really thought about this fact. I am pretty sure I learned about it on Encounters a locally produced program that
emphasizes experiences in the Alaskan wilderness.

One of the other things I often tell folks is how the seals will float in the water as the tide is going out so they do not need to climb up on the rock. Unlike Steller’s sea lions, the harbor seals seem to be weak climbers. It seemed that no sooner had I said this when I noticed a seal climbing out of the water up on to the rocks. This was followed by a second and third. I felt a little silly, but tried to recover by noting how their climbing was fairly labored and weak, and I had not seen them doing this before. I did not think much about it until later.

After we dropped our passengers off at their cruise ship, the captain told me that there was a pod of orcas teaching their young to hunt. He said as we were rounding Povortni Point he heard on the radio from another Allen Marine vessel that the orcas were at Caution Island with a harbor seal. We were already running just a little bit late, so we couldn’t afford to go back (as it was, the ship left promptly after we dropped off our passengers).

The news we heard from the boats that were able to watch was the adults were using a harbor seal to help their young practice hunting techniques. The adults would keep the seal from getting away and demonstrate techniques of attacking and stunning an animal in preparation for eating it. These include ramming, slapping with tails, and jumping out of the water to land on top of the prey. Apparently a later boat saw them actually consuming the seal. I imagine that the final minutes (hour?) of the seals life was terrifying, the stuff of seal nightmares. I can’t help but think the seals that were uncharacteristically climbing up on the rocks (which we observed probably about an hour before the orcas were spotted) knew the orcas were in the area and wanted to get out of the water if at all possible.

The last I heard, the orcas had turned their attention to ‘playing’ with a common murre. Based on what I have heard previously, it is unlikely that they will consume the bird, but they do seem to use them on occasion to practice hunting techniques.

It was a little disappointing to find out we just missed this opportunity to see some orca activity. It is my understanding that these animals move through Sitka Sound on a fairly regular basis, but they move quickly and do not seem to stay in one area for long, so seeing them seems involve getting a little lucky sometimes. People who have worked these tours for a number of years told me they usually only see orcas a handful of times a year. What made today even more interesting to me was that just yesterday I read about an orca/harbor seal encounter witnessed earlier this month north of Sitka (scroll down a little to see photos and link to video; scroll down into the comments to see a more complete story, the comment begins The story in two parts).

I spent about 4 very soggy hours down at Totem Park taking pictures. My intention was to take pictures of hummingbirds in the fireweed and shorebirds at high tide along the beach between the river and the battle site bench, but I ended up spending a fair amount of time trying to find what shelter I could from the falling rain.

Weather: Very wet. The rain never fell exceptionally hard, but it was pretty steady, with only a couple of times where it let up briefly. Winds were calm.

Birds: There were probably only a dozen or so gulls. Some of the juveniles were acting a little strange, flying erratically, diving at and chasing each other, and squawking. I never could figure out what they were up to.

As I was hanging out under an alder for a little protection from the rain, I saw a small flock of mallards swim by off shore headed toward the river mouth.

There was a lone Surf Scoter a ways off the beach.

I did notice some birds in the trees and fireweed. It was a little tough to identify them with the brief looks I got, but I am sure I saw Wilson’s and Orange-crowned Warblers. As I was leaving the beach, one bedraggled Orange-crowned Warbler came out into the open. It looked like it was feeling about as tired of being soaked wet as I was (see below).

There were a couple of Spotted Sandpipers that showed up at the park beach, but I also saw two of them along Lincoln Street Beach on the larger shore rocks between Merrill Rock and Sage Rock.

Two Greater Yellowlegs flew in and spent some time resting. I tried to sneak up on them, but had limited success.

There were probably at least a dozen or two Least Sandpipers still feeding at high tide. This was fewer than I had seen the last couple of days, however.

In among the Least Sandpipers was a lone Western Sandpiper.

I saw at least four Rufous Hummingbirds feeding in the fireweed. It was difficult to tell for sure, and for a time I thought there were only three.

As I was getting up to leave, at least five Semipalmated Plovers landed. I did not recognize them at first, as their breeding plumage (which I have seen before) is a little different their non-breeding, which they were showing today.

Flora: There was an oddly misshapen fireweed. It was normal up to a certain point on its stem where the main stem became quite flat. Leaves and flowers still grew out of the stem, but it was not typical.

There seem to be quite a few huckleberries in a couple locations along Lincoln. They’re not abundant, but it looks like the huckleberry crop might not be a total bust for the dedicated picker.

Other Notes: For much of the time after the tide had moved in over the flats, I saw a lone harbor seal in the water above the flats. It may have been chasing salmon, but I did not ever see it moving very actively.

Today was the first time I really noticed that it’s getting dark earlier. It was dark a little after 9pm.