Sitka Nature

While walking home from a city league basketball game, we were treated a colorful sky shortly after the 3:30pm sunset.

[View with PicLens]

 

One of the Mallards that hatched out earlier this year is unusually pale. I am curious if the different coloring will persist as it matures.

One of the Greater White-fronted Geese that were here this spring seems to have been left behind. It seems likely at this point that the bird will remain for the summer and join with a south-migrating flock this fall.

I also noticed an American Wigeon when I was at the lake.

Although spring officially started last weekend, the winter weather continues to hold on, with snow falling most days last week and snow in the forecast through at least Friday.

Winter did not seem especially cold overall, but unlike many years, there was no extended period of above freezing temperatures. Swan Lake remains almost completely frozen, as it has since ice first formed by mid-December.

Despite the on-going wintery weather, there are signs of changing seasons. The herring have returned along with the many birds and marine mammals that feed on them, buds are swelling on many plants, and of course there is much more daylight. Last week I noticed a male robin that I suspect is an early migrant.

It has been chilly the last couple of days, with partly cloudy skies overnight, but I still was a little surprised to see how much of the surface of Swan Lake was covered in ice. It was thin ice, though Mallards were able to land on it without breaking through. At this rate, perhaps it will be another winter like last, where the lake froze up at the end of November and never completely thawed until at least March or April.