Sitka Nature

With warm weather like we have been having the last couple of days, it’s easy to forget that it was less than a week ago that we were experiencing record setting cold. On a day like this, I walk out expecting to see signs of spring everywhere with nary a sign of winter long past. The signs of spring are there, but it’s a little jarring to my senses to see pockets of solid ice still persisting in the depressions of rocks at the very upper reaches of the intertidal zone (the splash zone, where the salt water only gets to a few times a year).

The thermometer hit the 63F in our carport, though I suspect it was merely in the 50s out of the direct sunlight. Still, after the single digit temperatures last week, the sun-warmed air is a welcome change.

Earlier today I went for a bike ride to take a look at Swan Lake. The lake is still mostly covered in ice, but there was a section open near the upper end of the Halibut Point Road side of the lake. There were quite a few Ring-necked Ducks, a pair of Hooded Mergansers, and the usual assortment of Mallards.

A brief wander around the neighborhood made me realize that there has been a deer (or more?) spending a fair amount of time in the area. There were quite a few piles of deer droppings scattered around different places. I assume they were all from the deer we saw last night.

I also saw the first larger insects I have seen this year, a wasp of some sort and a Morning Cloak butterfly (both pictured above).

I saw a couple of flocks of geese migrating north today. The larger of the two must have been 100 or more. I counted up to twenty and had not made it through most of one side of the V. They were flying over just after dusk. I could just make out the honking if I cupped my ears (there was a concert going on nearby that probably made them much more difficult to hear).

I returned yesterday from a 10 day trip. Most of the time I was gone, the weather was sunny and warm during the day with temperatures just below freezing at night. There are now many blueberries in bloom and I saw a salmonberry flower as well. Temperatures were cool today, with snow overnight and the snow level today appearing to be around 600 feet or so. I’m looking forward to getting out and observing the spring flowers as well as the spring bird migration.