Sitka Nature

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).

Today while on tour, we had the pleasure of watching a humpback whale breach multiple times over a relatively short period of time.  We had seen the whale near the entrance to Redoubt Bay and watched it there for a few minutes before moving south to view some Sea Otters at Fragrance Island.  While we were watching it the first time, it was behaving in a manner that seems typical for the whales I’ve seen this summer.  It would make series of short shallow dives, surfacing every few seconds, before making a deeper dive and staying down for several minutes.

On our way back north, we were going to take a look at a gray whale that had been spotted by another Allen Marine vessel.  As we were approaching the area where the gray whale had been seen, the humpback whale breached in the distance (though within sight). It started waving its pectoral flukes in the air and rolling, with both a pectoral fluke and tail fluke showing out of water.   The gray whale did not seem nearly as charismatic as this active humpback, so we went towards the humpback to get a better look at its activities.  While we, a couple of other Allen Marine boats, and a smaller boat or two that were in the area watched, this whale repeatedly breached.  It was pretty amazing.  I have included some of the photos below.

To all the Red Hat Society ladies who were on the tour with us and read this entry, I hope you enjoyed the rest of your trip.  It was fun having you on tour.

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.