Sitka Nature Homepage

Highlights of Recent Photo Uploads


Photojournal

The summer of 1999 was the first time I returned to Sitka after my parents had moved south. I had started working on a website the previous school year, and had purchased my first digital camera that spring. I had dabbled with photography and journaling my outdoor adventures with analog tools (film and notebooks) previously. Now converted to digital, with family to keep up to date, I started my photojournal. It now has grown to over 3000 posts spanning 25 years, with more to come.
Bench with a View

Downtown Owl

Clear early, becoming partly cloudy. Calm winds. Frosty overnight with temperatures up to around 40F by the afternoon. Light frost again last night. I …
Read more
Alpenglow on the High Peaks

Clear Skies and Afternoon Sun

Clear and warmer. Less windy, but still gusty winds at Silver Bay and out of Katlian Bay. Freezing overnight with temperatures into the low …
Read more
View from a Frozen Swan Lake

February Ice

Continuing outflow weather, though less strong than over the weekend. Temperatures overnight were in the upper 20s, and rose into the upper 30s today. …
Read more
Snowy Trail

More February Sun

Continuing clear and cool. Breezy, though less than the past two days. I woke this morning and saw the temperature had slowly risen overnight. …
Read more

Radio Show/Podcast

The Sitka Nature Show airs on Raven Radio alternate Sundays 1:30-2:30pm, and recordings are available here sometime after (not infrequently after a long delay). Find the most recently uploaded shows below. I also have a full archive.

Sitka Nature Show #333 – Connor Goff

Featuring a conversation with Connor Goff. We talked about bird highlights from the past year, and the adventures he’s been getting up to. These include hiking, boating, and diving in the Sitka area.
Read more
Ring-necked Ducks

Sitka Nature Show #332 – Kitty LaBounty

Featuring a conversation with Kitty LaBounty. We spoke about Christmas Bird Count experiences in Sitka and Arizona and the Continental MycoBlitz, including potentially new-to-science species from Southeast Alaska. Other topics included the Alaska Native Plant Society, Kitty’s on-going work to put together a flora of Southeast Alaska, and how we learn to recognize plants and other residents we share this place with.
Read more

Sitka Nature Show #331 – Brooke Schafer and Paul Norwood

Featuring a a conversation with Paul Norwood and Brooke Schafer, they shared about some of their local adventures in 2024. A few of the highlights included exploring Baranof Island high country near Peak 5390 (the highest point on the island), close encounters with voles, and finding the first local record of long-leaf sundew.
Read more
Bald Eagle with Fish

Sitka Nature Show #330 – Victoria Vosburg and Jen Cedarleaf

Featuring a conversation with Victoria Vosburg and Jen Cedarleaf. We talked about the upcoming Christmas Bird Count and how folks can prepare and participate. They also provided an update on the current status of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (once again present in the Sitka area).
Read more

Expore the Archive

A 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)
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.

13 thoughts on “Sitka Nature Homepage”

  1. 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!

  2. 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!

  3. 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

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Up In Pelican…Have had a Short-eared Owl around, and a small flock of
    Lapland Longspurs. Don’t see them often !

  7. 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

  8. 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.

Leave a Reply