Sitka Nature

This morning after dropping Rowan off at preschool, I went kayaking for a couple of hours. I went out towards Middle Channel, over to the lighthouse and then approached Beardslee Island before heading back to town. Rowan and I went to Swan Lake after I picked her up from preschool.

Weather: Winds were calm and temperatures got into the 50s. There was a thin high overcast for much of the day, but without any wind, even the dimmed sun felt warm. Heavier overcast started to come in later this afternoon, though a break near the horizon this evening made for a colorful sunset. Later in the evening it started raining.

Birds: I was hoping to see Fork-tailed Storm-petrels today, but had little luck in that regard. I may have seen one when I was headed back in. It flew something like a storm-petrel, but crossed some distance in front of me and I lost it before it really ever settled down.

I saw 10 Common Loons not far past the Lighthouse. There were also at least 40-50 cormorants, with the large majority of them Pelagic Cormorants. Mostly they were sunning themselves on the rocks, until they decided they did not care much for me and my kayak and flew away.

At Sage Rock there were quite a few Harlequin Ducks, and a small flock of Black Turnstones flew in as I was getting back to shorer.

I heard a Northern Flicker around the neighborhood this morning.

About the same time as Rowan and I arrived at Swan Lake, at least 50 crows flew in as well. They seemed to mostly be hanging out together, foraging on the grass, with some taking baths at the edge of the lake. After some time, they all flew off across the lake together in a couple of flocks.

There has been a Belted Kingfisher at the lake recently. It seems to favor a perch across the lake from the penninsula. Today I think I saw it being chased by a crow. It looked as if the crow was chasing it and finally it plopped into the water as kingfishers sometimes do. After a moment, it popped back out again and flew off to its favored perch (with another plop or two along the way). It may have just been coincidental alignment, rather than the crow actually chasing the kingfisher, since both were so far away, I’m not positive they were actually as close together as they looked.

There were more scaups on the lake today. At least 7-10 of them. I’m still trying to puzzle out whether they are Greater or Lesser Scaups. The ones I have had the best look at are not obviously one or the other to me. I finally got a good enough look at Ring-necked Ducks to be sure there were some there (after thinking I saw at least one last week, I never got a good enough look again to feel confident in that).

Another new arrival at the lake was an American Coot, the first I’ve seen this fall.

Holdovers from previous days included three American Wigeons and a Cackling Goose. I also heard a Northern Flicker somewhere in the area while I was at the lake. That’s not too unusual, I’ve found.

This evening at sunset I saw a Cackling or Canada Goose in the water off Sage Beach. It was by itself on the water, so I had a difficult time judging how large it was.

Other Notes: There was an active dragonfly at Swan Lake today. I have not noticed one the last few times I have been there. I suspect the warmer temperatures today had something to do with its activity.

I had an early afternoon basketball game today, and on the way home I stopped by Swan Lake to spend a little time watching. Later in the afternoon, Connor, Rowan and I went for a walk down to Totem Park.

Weather: It was a cool day with some rain in the morning. Mostly cloudy skies with a little bit of clearing in the afternoon. Winds were light.

Birds: At Swan Lake there were 4 Northern Shovelers, 6 American Wigeons, 1 Hooded Merganser, 5 Scaup (probably Lesser), 1 or more Green-winged Teal, and the Cackling Goose (in addition to the assorted Mallards that are typically there).

While I was sitting at the lake, I happened to notice two Ravens fly over the lake (from the Southwest toward the Northeast), the second starting across just after the first one had moved beyond it. This would not be particularly remarkable except for what I saw each raven do as it flew over. As the first one was flying over the lake, I heard it make a two note (higher-lower) call with a partial roll. It did this two or three times while it was over the lake, but once it was beyond the lake, I did not see it do it again, though it was still in view for a few seconds (the time between these actions while over the lake was only a second or two). The second raven, following shortly after the first one made a different call (more of a typical caw), but executed what appeared to me to be the same style of partial roll while flying over the lake. I also did not see it do this once it moved beyond the lake. I am at a loss as to why these birds might have done that, though it seemed to me to be some sort of acknowledgement of the lake (though what that might mean, if anything, I don’t know).

From Totem Park I could see at least a dozen (presumed) Fork-tailed Storm-petrels across the bay in front of Turning Island. The weather was calm, and I was tempted to go kayaking to get better views, but it was getting too close to dark by the time we got home.

At the park we saw a couple of Mallards in the Visitor’s Center tidepool, with many more around at the river mouth. I think I saw a Northern Pintail at the river mouth as well, though I am not sure.

We saw scattered gulls, with one flock out on the flats closer to the Visitor’s Center, but more out near the river mouth and in the estuary. I saw all 5 species, with Thayer’s Gulls seeming to be the most numerous, followed by Glaucous-winged Gulls, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Mew Gulls, and just a few Herring Gulls.

There were lots of Harlequins off shore from the river mouth.

At the upper part of the beach there were Savannah Sparrows and an American Pipit or two.

I heard some Black Turnstones, but didn’t investigate to see how many there were.

There was a Winter Wren right by the trail where we get back on it at the end of the park.

We saw one or two Great-blue Herons in the tidepools (probably two, but it’s possible it was just one that moved while we were on the trail in the woods).

There was a small flock of Chestnut-backed Chickadees near family housing when we were walking back.

Yesterday I did not feel all that great after a relatively poor night of sleep, though I did stop by Swan Lake briefly and get out on a walk to the park with Connor.

Today I stopped by Swan Lake this morning after dropping Connor off at school. I also stopped by Centennial Building and to look around on my way home. Late this morning I took advantage of pleasant weather to go for a walk to Totem Park.

Weather: Yesterday was rainy and a bit breezy. Snow level dropped to about 2900 feet or so. Today it started out overcast, but became partly cloudy for much of the late morning and early afternoon. Clouds moved in again later in the afternoon, though I did not notice any rain. This evening after sunset there were clear skies over town. The temperature this morning was near 40, and the snow level behind town was probably around 2700 feet. Mt. Edgecumbe was mostly covered in clouds when I looked, but what I could see through the breaks appeared to have no snow, despite the crater rim’s elevation being between 2800 and 3200 feet in elevation. Perhaps the far side (which is the higher part) had snow, or it was just warmer out there.

Birds: Yesterday the two scaups were still at Swan Lake. I also saw three American Wigeons, and the Cackling Goose. At Totem Park we noted the Ruddy Turnstone, American Pipits, Savannah Sparrows and the Spotted Sandpiper.

This morning at Swan Lake I saw two American Wigeons, two Greater Scaups, a Hooded Merganser (on the HPR side of the lake), and the Cackling Goose.

On the rocks near the Crescent Harbor boat ramp, there were quite a few Black Turnstones and Surfbirds. They alternated between the rocks just inside the breakwater, the rocks on the outside of the breakwater, and the rocks across the Kettleson Library cove. There were probably more than 100 birds in total, with most of them Black Turnstones. I saw perhaps 10 Surfbirds.

As I was leaving the house for my walk, I noticed two Song Sparrows singing back and forth. One was by Austin House, the other in the large elderberry just down the drive. I think the sunshine brought out the urge to sing, as I heard more Song Sparrows singing down along the beach also.

There were quite a few Black Turnstones and a few gulls at Sage Beach. There were also several Harlequin Ducks.

I think I saw a couple of Red-necked Grebes out in Crescent Bay.

There was a Hermit Thrush along the beach at the same place where one seemed to join me for a time on my walk a couple of days ago. A little further up the beach I saw two more Hermit Thrushes. Later I also saw another Hermit Thrush in the woods near the trail as it nears the bridge across the river.

There were quite a few Savannah Sparrows and not quite as many Song Sparrows scatter about foraging at the upper part of the beach.

I do not know if it’s coincidental timing or not, but the number of gulls at Totem Park has been much less in the few days since I saw the goshawk kill the gull. At first I thought it might be because I was visiting at high tides, but today the tide was out a bit and there were still far fewer gulls. There are fewer salmon carcasses on the beach, but most of the gulls on the beach before were not eating at the time anyway. Today I saw perhaps a couple of hundred gulls in 2 or 3 flocks at different places on the tide flats. I saw some Black-legged Kittiwakes out from the beach between the Battlesite and the River Mouth.

At the river mouth there were 50+ Harlequin Ducks, 5 Northern Pintails, a Green-winged Teal, several Mallards, 4 Barrow’s Goldeneye, and around 15 Surf Scoters. The goldeneyes were the first I have seen this fall. Six Common Mergansers flew up to the river while I was watching, but by the time I got up there, I only saw 2 diving at the lower part of the estuary. I was interested to see a Northern Pintail diving with them. I think of pintails as dabbling ducks, so it was strange to see this one diving, presumably for salmon eggs. It seemed to require more effort to get underwater than the mergansers did.

There were quite a few gulls in the estuary and river, but still not as many as I had seen last week and before.

On my walk around the flats I also saw several Pelagic Cormorants and I think one Double-crested Cormorant.