Sitka Nature

This past week 2 or 3 low pressure centers merged in the eastern Gulf of Alaska to create an exceptionally strong low pressure system. Strong low pressure systems are typically associated with strong winds, big waves, and storm surge that leads to higher tides. Accordingly, Sitka was under a Wind Advisory from the National Weather Service that lasted from early Wednesday morning through Friday morning. Marine forecasts called for seas to 34 feet (which probably contributed to the surf in coastal Washington).

Coincidentally, the high tide predicted for Thursday afternoon was one of the higher ones of the year at 11.6 feet (for context, the very highest predicted tide of the year tends to be between 12.7 and 13 feet, depending on the year, and much of the year tides don’t get above 11 feet). Based on my subjective impression of the water height at Crescent Harbor (see photo above), I thought it was easily above 12 feet, and maybe pushing closer to 13 feet. Later, I was able to find the coastal water level monitoring data from NOAA and saw that the observed water level was nearly 13.4 ft, almost 1.4 feet above the predicted level.

The highest water level I remember seeing was during the 1984 Thanksgiving Day storm. I remember driving out the road with my parents and brother to look at the ocean near the time of the predicted high tide. Waves were pushing rocks up on the parking lot at Sandy Beach, Nelson Logging Road was well under water, and the waves were splashing up underneath the furthest-out trailer at Arrowhead Trailer Court (subsequently fill and a rip-rap wall was added to protect the trailers). On a subsequent hunting trip, I saw debris that had obviously been deposited by a high tide up in the woods several feet off the beach.

I was able to find historical information on the Sitka Station page of the NOAA Tides & Currents site. The predicted tide for that day was about 12.3 feet, but the maximum reported observation was nearly 14.6 feet. A higher predicted tide and greater storm associated increase made that tide much more significant than the one this past week which was unusually high, but not hugely so.

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.