Swainson’s Thrush Singing (465kb mp3)

Weather: Saturday morning it was foggy, but the fog started to break up in the late morning. Sunday it rained throughout the day with low clouds.

Birds: It seemed like the birds were singing more on Sunday. I am not sure if that had something to do with the bird’s response to wet weather or if it was just me.

Other Notes: Rowan and I went out and gathered greens to add to calzones that I was making for supper on Sunday. We picked spinach, dandelions, and stream violets.

Weather: Today’s weather reminded me of spring weather I typically associate with March and April. Chilly rain showers moved through with the sun breaking out for short periods of time. The snow level has been down around 2000ft still within the past couple of days, so I suspect the snow pack is still accumulating rather than melting off. Hopefully I can start getting up the mountains in the next week or so as school winds down.

Birds: The ravens continue to feed in the lawn. There were two Golden-crowned Sparrows finding food in our driveway this evening.

Flora: I saw my first stream violet of the year in bloom yesterday. They’ve probably been in bloom for a few days, but I haven’t been getting out to check. The salmonberries are finally starting to get serious about blooming.

Fauna: Two deer were walking up in front of the Stratton Library today through the midst of a number of people. They walked within 5-10 feet of someone who was standing on the stairs by the library.

Weather: It was mostly cloudy this morning with no noticable breeze. It remained mostly cloudy, but the wind came up later in the morning out of the West or Southwest.

Birds:
Birds I heard singing this morning included the Winter Wrens, American Robin, and Varied Thrush.

As I was getting started for my third try in as many days to find the Spot-billed Ducks, I saw quite a few American Robins feeding around the lawns on campus. There was also a Ruby-crowned Kinglet or two in the Red Alders between the hatchery and the playground.

In the ‘Junkhole’ (a small cove that is part of the non-park intertidal area near the mouth of Indian River; it has a lot of junk around it) I saw a number of crows and gulls feeding in the sand/mud areas of the tide flats.

The Song Sparrows were singing along Sawmill Creek Road in a number of places, both on the beach side and on the residential side of the road.

This morning I tried for the third time to find the Spot-billed Ducks that had been reported. Unlike the other times, the tide was out on this effort. I tried Blueberry Lane again. There were again a number of cormorants, both Double-crested Cormorants and Pelagic Cormorants. I heard their croaking calls a few times. Sibley’s says that they rarely vocalize when they are not nesting. I guess it’s getting to that time of year; I wonder if they will be nesting that close to people.

While I waited and watched, I saw a loon. It was too far away for me to tell for sure, but I think it was a Common Loon. It was still in its winter plumage.

Also while waiting, I heard and saw a few other birds, including a distant Northern Flicker, Winter Wrens, three Mallards, and probably some others I have forgotten.

I took a quick trip over to Thimbleberry Lake, but there were no birds on the lake. I also did not observe any bird activity along the trail on the way up. There was someone else out on the lake in the boat, so if any waterfowl had been there perhaps they flew off when he got to the late. The blueberry thickets along the trail as it nears the lake are prime hummingbird habitat when the bushes are blooming. I looked and listened, but did not see or hear any.

On my way back, I decided to take a side trip to Totem Park to see if any new shorebirds had arrived. As I was out walking on the flats, I was feeling tired and decided to push on just a little bit more instead of turning around to go home. Moments later, I noticed 4 Greater Yellowlegs feeding in a shallow sandy-bottomed tidepool. I sat and watched them for a few minutes as they moved down the beach. When I happened to look over, I saw a couple of Black-bellied Plovers not too far away. I had completely overlooked them. I guess I got tunnel vision on the Yellowlegs.

There were several Common Mergansers on the beach at the edge of the southeastern most large tidepool. They all flew off when a noisy group of kids came down the trail and spilled out on to the beach. I think I found them again when I reached point of the flats at the river mouth. I also saw a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers in among them.

This afternoon there was an Easter Egg hunt for the campus kids. I helped Rowan find eggs and was a little puzzled when we came across half an egg with the candy spilled out (they were plastic eggs). Later I figured out what was going on when I saw a Raven pick up an egg, get it open and then take out one of the small chocolate eggs (wrapped in foil) from the inside. I was later told that they had been seen doing that with a number of eggs. In some cases they took the whole egg to the top of a building and opened it; most of the candy rolled down the roof, but they would take out the chocolate eggs and unwrap them. Presumably they then ate the chocolate. Who knew they liked chocolate? A fellow faculty member who used to go to UAS in Juneau where they had a similar Easter egg hunt (with real eggs) said that the Ravens seemed to know the occasion and would gather to participate. There were people who had the task of trying to keep the Ravens off the eggs so the kids could find them.

Flora: The Deer Heart are coming out, with leaves still coiled. In the last few days, the Stream Violet leaves have emerged, but I did not see any flowers yet (last year at this time stream violets and salmonberries were already blooming). I looked for Fern-leaved Goldthread along Thimbleberry Lake trail, but did not see any in bloom (they were also blooming at this time last year). Clearly the cold snap put the plants back a bit as compared to last year.

The last couple of times I have been down to the park, I have noticed a fair amount of ribbon kelp washed up on shore. Today I figured out part of the reason. I noticed that a fair number of kelp fronds were actually still attached to small rocks. They had apparently grown large enough to create sufficient drag in the water so that they got washed ashore by the wave action. Either that, or they actually were able to grow that large in the higher intertidal zone (which seems unlikely).

Garden: The spinach appears to have sprouted in a couple of the containers. Rhubarb is pushing up through the seaweed. A little bit of green is showing in the raspberry buds.

Other Notes: Someone who lives down the hill toward Sage building mentioned seeing two deer this morning. I have not seen the deer (nor noticed any fresh droppings) in at least a couple of weeks, so I figured they moved back up into the woods. Perhaps they are back (or possibly these are other deer). I also got to wondering if these pair of deer are the same as the ones we saw last year.

Weather: Winds were out of the north today. By the afternoon there was a fairly steady breeze. Partly cloudy skies with big cumulus clouds hanging over many of the mountains. It appeared that many of the clouds dropped precipitation over the mountains, but it stayed sunny in town.

Flora: Red alder catkins appear to be swelling and getting ready to open up. The yellow pond lilies in Swan Lake are starting to push leaves up toward the surface.

Birds: I went by Swan Lake today and saw Scaups (I think both Lesser and Greater) along with the Mallards. I think I saw a swan toward the upper end of the lake where I had noticed one (the same?) previously. While I was around the lake, I also heard a flicker calling periodically. There was a good size flock of gulls that was in the middle of the lake when I arrived, but shortly afterward they all took off and flew north.

Some of the scaups were resting on the penninsula, the first time I had seen them out of the water. It appeared that one or two of them were males that were undergoing a molt. This seems like an odd time of year for that, it’s possible they were first year males just now changing to breeding plumage.

Other Notes: This evening the kids helped me plant some spinach and carrots. I covered up the carrots with some plastic to protect them from frost and put the spinach in pots. Although the variety I planted is supposed to be resistant to bolting, the long Alaskan summer days may overcome that resistance. I am thinking it might work to cover the plants up in the evening and uncover them in the morning as the days get longer to keep them from going to seed (of course that requires consistent effort to remember).