Highlights of Recent Photo Uploads













Photojournal
Recent Updates (includes older recently published or updated entries – go to the Photojournal page for only recent entries):

Variegated Huckleberry Revisited

Short Walk along Mosquito Cove Trail

Gavan Hill Trail to the Viewpoint

First of June Observations

Geocaching and Birding

Japonski Island and Swan Lake
Radio Show/Podcast

Sitka Nature Show #339 – Laura Kaltenstein

Sitka Nature Show #338 – Andy Szabo and Lauren Eckert

Sitka Nature Show #337 – Zach LaPerriere

Sitka Nature Show #336 – Alice and Chuck Johnstone (encore)
Explore the Archive
Today in Sitka Nature History:
Harbor Mountain Walk
June 12, 2021

It was mostly sunny over town when I got up this morning, though there were dark gray clouds to the WNW and NW. Clouds built a bit throughout the day, … Read more
Sitka Nature Show #108 – Allison Nelson
June 12, 2016
Download Radio Show The 12th of June show featured a conversation with Allison Nelson, who recently had a paper published about breeding areas of Hermit Thrushes that winter in the … Read more
Marbled Murrelet
June 12, 2014
Marbled Murrelets are one of the most common birds on the water here in Southeast Alaska. They are common enough that despite paying little attention to birds when I was … Read more
Gray Evening on Blue Lake
June 12, 2009

Heading up Blue Lake to spend the night and do surveying tomorrow.
12 June Photos: Gavan Hill Trail
June 12, 2007
Daily Observations
June 12, 2006
Weather: It was sunny throughout the day with a pretty good breeze blowing from the west that came up in the afternoon and blew through the evening. Birds: Just after … Read more
Selection of random posts from the past 25+ years.
- SitkaBirds email List (subscribe here)
- SitkaBirds List is an e-mail list for birding around Sitka. It serves as to share photos and ask questions about birds or birding in Sitka. Also to notify others of sightings that may be unusual or of interest. If you are interested, please subscribe here. There is also a Sitka Birds Facebook Group (while both are active, the Facebook group has more active participants).
- Sitka Natural History Seminar Series
- To be notified of upcoming talks in the series, you can (subscribe here) to receive the announcements
- The Birds of Sitka, Alaska by J. Dan Webster.
- A comprehensive summary of published historical records (including looks at museum specimens) for the Sitka area.
- Species Checklists for Southeast Alaska (links below are currently only intermittently active, I have some work to do on that site)
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- Birds
- Mammals
- Vascular Plants
- Bryophytes
- Lichens (incomplete)
- Pre-2007 Photojournal
- Photos and journal entries from 1998-2006 (on a different site – I eventually intend to migrate entries to this one)
- Sitka Trails (on another site)
- A trail guide I am working on for trails on the Sitka Road system. It was on (or just off of) many of these trails where I took many of the photos seen here. I started redoing it in early 2024, but haven’t completed the remodel.
THANKS FOR THE INSPIRATION TO COME HOME SOON! CLASS OF ’94 KARI NILES (BLANKENSHIP)
This is an amazing effort, already well underway! As a botanist/naturalist, I naturally went straight to the plant page. Two hemlocks! You are so lucky. Thanks for the great photos and site!
Thanks for the great site. Was referred to by Marge Ward and Marlys Tedin (my aunt). I’m a displaced native (not a blood native, just born there) Now living in Chicago. Your site really tugs my strings to get back there for an extended period of time. Keep it up. Your photography is really coming along! Hard to take a bad shot around that area, if you are “in it” as much as you are. Keep hiking and sending pics. I’ll be there soon!
I had a friend send me some of the sound clips you have made. Wonderful! Do you have a mailing list in which you send out info from time to time? if so, please put me on it! great work! pat
An eastern kingbird: St. Lazaria Island, 2 July 2010…. made forays from its foraging perch in a lone mature Sitka spruce on a slope otherwise dominated by rye grass and salmonberry.
Thank you for posting all this photos, and keeping updated your quest of knowledge and beauty. I feel like walking with you on this wild path, day by day, you who wander, in this distant country. Magic of internet.
Up In Pelican…Have had a Short-eared Owl around, and a small flock of
Lapland Longspurs. Don’t see them often !
Thanks for the report from Pelican – nice to hear what’s going on in some of the less populated areas of the region!
Dear Naturalist,
Do yoy know of a database containing observations of all kinds of species (but certainly mammals and birds are of utmost interest) in the Sitka area? (or perhaps all of southeast Alaska).
I’m writing from Denmark. I once visited Sitka, it was a brief stay, but I hope to return next spring.
Best regards Mads Kusk
Mads – check out Southeast Alaska Natural History Wiki – there are other sources that have a bit more depth for some things, but that’s probably the best single source for what you’re looking for.
Thanks for all your hard work on this site. I have you in my RSS feed and read every post!
Thanks Rab – I appreciate your interest and encouragement!
Thank you for identifying my many plants on iNaturalist. I had no service for 10 days so just took pictures to upload later. The plant life in Yakutat is quite different from the plant life is south Texas. I was however pleasantly surprised to find a number or plants that were native to both.