Sitka Nature

Clear skies with chilly temperatures made for a nice quiet night, weather-wise. Except for a distant eagle calling at 2:30, the only thing I heard until nearly daylight was River Otters chirping. The started about 2:35 and continued through almost 4. They were so faint for much of that time, I suspect in other weather conditions, I would not have caught them. Once it started getting light, I did pick up more calls, as expected. Ravens led off the morning dialog with the first calls at 6:35. About 10 minutes later, the first Bald Eagle added its voice. I was treated to a Trumpeter Swan flyby a few minutes before 7. It must not have been too close, as I couldn’t hear the feather whistling, but the calls were fairly distinctive. I also picked up a couple of other new species for these recordings, a Hair Woodpecker and Dark-eyed Juncos.

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Trumpeter Swan: At first I was not even sure this was an animal call. After a couple of listens I realized it sounded like a swan, and a quick check of the Birds of Alaska CD confirmed it. Download Trumpeter Swan

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Hairy Woodpecker: I am not absolutely sure about this call, but I’m confident that it’s a woodpecker. Although it seems clear the woodpecker must be flying from left to right, the wingbeats that are heard in this clip are probably from a Raven, not the woodpecker.
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Dark-eyed Juncos: These juncos were getting after each other a bit. In recent days I have been realizing that I have not seen many Dark-eyed Juncos around lately. I’m not sure why that is, but apparently they’ve returned to the neighborhood for at least one morning.
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The birds were very active in the neighborhood this afternoon.

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A few days after Connor started spreading some bird food around the yard a couple of weeks ago, the Dark-eyed Juncos discovered it and have since been frequent visitors. Among them is an individual (shown above) with unusual pale feather coloring on its wings and tail. The pattern of coloring is quite similar to a bird that visited our yard frequently three years ago, the last time we had feeders out (shown below). So much so, that I’m pretty sure it must be the same bird.

It’s unusual for me to be able to keep track of an individual bird for a few minutes while watching even a small group of birds. It’s pretty much unprecendented that I recognize an individual I have not seen for three years. In some way it’s like the return of an old friend. I’m happy about the return of this bird, and find that I wonder what it’s been up to over the last couple of years. Where does it go for the summer breeding season? Has it been in the neighborhood the last two winters? It seems likely, but I don’t remember ever seeing it.

The return of this individual also makes me wonder how many of the juncos that I see each winter around the neighborhood are here every winter. I’m sure mortality is pretty high from year to year. In some respects it’s pretty amazing that this bird with plumage that is not necessarily optimal for hiding, has managed to survive when I’m sure many of his peers didn’t. According to the Birds of North America on-line, Dark-eyed Juncos have been observed to live at least 11 years in the wild (found via bird banding work). Although it seems unlikely that we will live in this neighborhood for more than a year or two into the future, I think it would be neat to see this bird again each winter.