Sitka Nature

This spring it was hard to miss all the geese in Sitka as they flew honking overhead or fed and rested on lawns and beaches. Based on reported sightings, at least 250 birds visited town, possibly many more. Most are Greater White-fronted Geese, though there were at least one Snow Goose and a handful of Cackling Geese traveling with them. Geese often show up in town in small numbers during their spring migration, but seeing large flocks on the ground is unusual.

The first report of a large flock in town was Friday morning, April 24. A commercial fisherman noted a flock of over 200 geese at the Turnaround and reported it to the Sitka Birds e-mail list. Over the days that followed, there were several more reports from the Turnaround, Totem Park and Starrigavan.

A conversation with Paul Norwood about some observations he made on a recent kayak trip south of town provided a suggestion as to why they showed up like. He mentioned seeing 2000 geese flying north over Biorka Island on Thursday, April 23. He said there was a light Northwest wind at the time, but it strengthened throughout the day, and later there were many smaller flocks flying back from the north in toward land.

Marge Ward and Marlys Tedin said there had been a similar abundance of Greater White-fronted Geese around town in 2002. Thanks to their detailed records, I was able to find the first large flocks were reported on the morning of May first at Swan Lake. A quick check of the weather history revealed there had been a strong Northwest wind blowing most of the previous day.

Given the weather immediately preceding the arrival of geese in 2002 and again this year, a strong Northwest winds provides a plausible explanation for the goose invasion. However, it is not yet clear whether there were other years when the Northwest wind blew during migration and geese did not show up in town. Maybe the cold winter and early spring also played a role. With snow and ice still persisting on even lower elevation lakes, perhaps locations the geese might ordinarily prefer were not available. Or, perhaps the typical migration route for these geese takes them up Chatham Straight or further east along the mainland. It would be interesting to know if large flocks of geese move up the outer coast, flying across the mouth of Sitka Sound most years, only moving into town in years when unfavorable winds push them back.

Weather: There were periods of rain today, with mostly cloudy skies. The effect over town was alternating periods of relatively bright (sometimes sunny) weather with dark overcast and rain. On a short walk to the park this afternoon, I experienced the end of one rain shower and got to see a rainbow in front of Mt. Verstovia. The sun was still fairly high in the sky, so the rainbow was not a large one. Winds during the rain shower were out of the northwest. They seemed to calm down after the rain.

Birds: The Winter Wren started calling this morning at about 6:45am and called continuously for nearly 15 minutes. It would pause for only a few seconds between songs.

I heard the gulls calling vigorously while in my office in the early afternoon, but I was meeting with a student and unable to check outside to see why they were being so vocal in a location that I could easily hear them.

Later in the afternoon I went for a short walk to Totem Park. On my way down Lincoln Street I heard some eagles calling and stopped to take a look. One eagle was perched on a piling and another came swooping in toward it. I saw something drop from the piling into the water, after which the perched eagle took off and started flying toward the other eagle. A third eagle flew into the fray. They circled around a bit with one or two of them landing on pilings. The third eagle (which I think was the one that had intially swooped in on the perched eagle, but I’m not sure) appeared to be erratically flying around and getting tossed about by the wind. Just when it looked like it was going to get blown away, it pulled its wings in, dropped almost straight down to the water, extended its wings just in time and managed to grab something out of the water with its talons before flying strongly off toward the trees and beyond. In hindsight, I guess it was a pretty amazing bit of flying rather than the erratic, windblown flying I had intially thought I was seeing.

There was a pretty good flock of gulls out in the bay. It appeared that they were feeding on something near the surface. I also saw an eagle swooping down among them. It seems likely there was a school of small fish near the surface.

There were a couple of pretty good sized flocks of gulls just past the large tidepools on the southwest part of the tideflats, but I did not see any that looked unusual at a first glance (and I did not have time to stick around for a closer look).

As I walked out to the point I flushed the Killdeer. I did not see it before it took off and flew a short distance away. It seemed far more energetic than when I first observed it last Friday. At that time it was very reluctant to fly, prefering to walk away from my approach. Today it did not seem to hesitate at all, flying up when I was still a pretty good distance away.

Other Notes: Blueberries flowers are increasing in number.

Students have told me that they are starting to catch Dolly Varden now. Presumably that means the salmon fry are starting to out migrate from Indian River.

Singing Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)

The Dark-eyed Juncos that have been spending the winter in our neighborhood seem to have started their dispersal. Over the last couple of winters I have observed fairly large flocks of juncos spending time in the neighborhood. They show up in the fall and make the rounds of the neighborhood. I am uncertain how far they range, but they do seem to mostly stick together in flocks. Throughout the fall and winter, there seems to be little aggression between the birds, but as the days get longer in late winter, I have noticed them getting more aggressive with each other (it’s probably just the males, though I did not notice specifically). By March they are starting to practice their trilling song. I say practice because the song seems to be shorter than what I hear later in the spring when they are nesting. As spring gets going, they disperse back to their preferred nesting areas. I typically observe pairs of them around clearings (muskegs and beach meadows) at low and mid-elevations (I cannot recall whether I have seen them at higher elevations or not). It may be that they also nest in forested and/or brushy areas, but it is more difficult to observe them in such situations. I am uncertain whether the birds that winter in our neighborhood stay in the general area or go further north with the birds nesting in this area wintering further south.