Sitka Nature

While walking near the flume a couple of days ago, I noticed something white along the bank. From a distance I couldn’t tell what it was, the only thing that crossed my mind was some sort of plastic packing material, but I decided to take a closer look.

As I approached my eyes and brain tried to make sense of what I was seeing before it finally clicked; it was the wing and body of a Glaucous-winged Gull that had been partially pulled up under the bank. Given the size of the bank opening, my best guess is that a mink got a hold of the bird and pulled it up in there, but there is also a chance that an otter could have done it. I didn’t pull the bird out to take a look at it, but will probably go check on it over the next few days.

It started out calm, but the wind picked up a little before 2. There was a far distant Western Screech-owl calling for a little while. It was quite faint, and I would not have noticed it had the wind not been still at that point. The first Marbled Murrelet call I caught was at 01:17, quite early. I didn’t notice any more until around 4:30 and then again at 5:30.

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Marbled Murrelets: I suspect all of these are Marbled Murrelets. I’m confident in the first one, and the last part of the second, but less so about the others, as the calls are more like chirps than the ‘keer’ calls of Marbled Murrelets. However, I would not be surprised if Marbled Murrelets chirp also. The initial chirps in the second clip have a very similar sound quality to the following ‘keer’ calls, so it seems likely to be a Marbled Murrelet throughout. Trying to puzzle these chirps out has made me curious if Marbled Murrelets might respond to River Otters chirping.

I did not hear much through the steady rain. There was an otter a little before 4am, then more otters and mystery calls between 5 and 5:30. One of the mystery calls was the shorebird-like calls. There was more than one call this time, but none of them were as loud or clear as the clip I posted a few days ago.

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River Otter Mystery Calls: I’m still puzzled by these River Otter/Mystery Calls. In this clip, it seems as though there’s an echo effect smearing the call somewhat, though in the very last call, there is not really any echo. It’s hard for me tell for sure if the final call is the same as the earlier ones, though it seems like maybe it is.
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River Otter and Mystery Calls: Recorded only 5 minutes or so after the previous clip, this starts out with what I’m pretty confident is a River Otter. About halfway through, the calls change to the mystery calls that sound kind of like gulls to me.
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Early Rising Bald Eagle: This Bald Eagle probably spent the night in a tree behind the house. It was up early on a rainy Sunday, though given the time change last night, it was not as early as it might have otherwise seemed. Recorded at 06:37.
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There was an Owl calling last night around 12:45 and River Otters chirping around 3 and 5am. This morning there was an interesting intro to Red Squirrel chatter that I’ve included a clip of.

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River Otter and Mystery Calls: More of the River Otter and Mystery Calls. In this clip, there is an otter chirping, then the mystery (possibly gull?) call comes in with the otter. It sounds to me like the second type of call is from an animal that’s moving around faster than I would expect an otter to (which would incline me to think it’s a bird), but I am uncertain how well I can actually interpret the spatial cues in these recordings.
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Red Squirrel: The rapid call at the beginning of this clip was something I don’t remember hearing before.
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