Today we made a second try for Low Island. We needed to be back in town by 11:30am, so we arranged to meet at the harbor at 7am. I was a few minutes delayed by a singing bird that I didn’t recognize.

The ride out was largely uneventful. We did see a whale blowing in the distance, and there was the usual assortment of murres, otters, and the occasional Rhinoceros Auklet. One change from a couple of weeks ago was the ocean conditions. It was basically flat calm all the way out to Low Island. Skies were pretty much clear, though a pollen (presumably) haze hung in the air.

Out on Low Island there were quite a number of seals. As the saw they boat coming in closer, they opted to head for the water. We had an audience watching the anchor drop and the 4 of us head towards show in an inflatable. I think in the end, the seals mostly moved around the island, as there were a couple of other locations on the other side that had a large number of seals hauled out, and at the one on the south side, I saw seals arriving and hauling themselves up on to the exposed rocks.

Shorebird-wise, things were definitely more active than it has been recently around town, but birds were not as abundant as I have seen in past years. Still, it was a nice mix, including at over 20 (and perhaps over 30) Red Knots, Sanderling, three Wandering Tattlers, at least four pair of nesting Black Oystercatchers, Black-belled Plovers, Western and Least Sandpipers, Dunlin, Short-billed Dowitchers, Semipalmated Plovers, and perhaps a Semipalmated Sandpiper (though I did not get a good enough look to be sure).

Walking around the island with calm air and sunny skies, I ended up feeling quite warm. When we returned home, the sun was still shining, but a few clouds were starting to form near the mountain peaks. As the day went on, those clouds settled over the mountain peaks and then by this evening had developed into a more complete layer of marine stratus that obscured the blue sky and sun.

The kids and I did make use of the nice weather and continued work on the yard – both cleaning things up and getting things planted, including the remainder of the first order of strawberries as well as potatoes.

(more photos to come – still have a fair amount of processing to do)

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Today was the annual WhaleFest fundraiser food web cruise. I’m not sure how long it’s been an annual fundraiser, but I’ve been invited to talk about birds for the past several years. I always enjoy participating on these trips and appreciate the opportunity. Although it was a little slow for birds this year, the weather was excellent, and there were plenty of whales and sealions to keep people entertained. Bird-wise, the channel was fairly quiet, especially once we got past the processing plants (with the exception of nearly 50 Bald Eagles perched on the breakwater). We went out between Middle Island and the Gavanskis, and I saw a couple of murres, but not a lot else. There were plenty of whales to keep people entertained, however. We ended up spending a fair amount of time watching whales not too far off shore between Old Sitka Rocks and the Ferry Terminal. There seemed to be several small groups working together. One of the highlights for me was seeing herring jumping out of the water to get away from the whales coming up from below. I don’t remember seeing that before, and I noticed it two or three times today.

In the afternoon I documented glacial striations at John Brown’s Beach, Alice Island, and a small high water island south of Halibut Point. John Brown’s Beach and Alice Island were each running a little bit south of west, while the one out Halibut Point Road was running south. My guess at this point is there was a glacier pushing out of what is now Indian River valley toward the west, with one coming out of Katlian (perhaps joining a larger one)? and pushing south. I imagine they met up somewhere and pushed out into the sound. It will be interesting to see what emerges as more observations are made on the islands in/around the sound.

One other note of interest was a dead immature Sharp-shinned Hawk I found out on Alice Island. It did not have any obvious injuries that I could see and seemed quite fresh, so I contacted the Raptor Center to see if they were interested in checking it out. As it was an immature bird and there haven’t been any Pine Siskins around (which seem to be a preferred prey for young birds, at least), I wonder if it starved.

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It’s been a somewhat slow month, weather and work kept me from getting out too much. Mostly I’ve been in the central downtown area with a couple of trips out the road (where I wasn’t doing much in the way of observation) and one short boat trip.

All together I recorded 60 species – all but 4 of them birds. Non-birds included a Snow Sedge (caddisfly), Sea Otters, a Steller Sea lion, and shrew tracks (the fly and shrew tracks were photographed, but not recorded in CyberTracker).

Of the 58 species of birds, thirteen were only recorded on one occasion. The species I noted most often were Common Merganser (37 times), Common Raven (35 times), Song Sparrow (29), Northwestern Crow (27 times), Dark-eyed Junco (24 times) and Rock Pigeon (21 times). I was actually a little surprised about the mergansers – all the other species are frequently found in my neighborhood. I guess the spacing of the mergansers is such that I usually end up marking them down several times most times I am observing somewhere along the shoreline.

The most unusual species for the month were at least two different Anna’s Hummingbirds recorded on four occasions (none since the cold snap mid-Month), a single record of a Lincoln’s Sparrow (very unusual for one to be over wintering here, as far as I know), and a lone Common Redpoll that’s been hanging in with a flock of Pine Siskins (Redpolls can be common in some winters, but most winters they are basically absent). The Western Screech-Owl is notable since it was a sight rather than sound observation.

In terms of total numbers (which, despite the apparent precision should only be taken as rough approximations), I recorded 569 Northwestern Crows, far an away the most numerous species. On two occasions I estimated at least 100 birds in a flock, and several other reports have counts between 20 and 50. Other species with relatively high totals included Mallard (260), Dark-eyed Junco (253), Common Merganser (244), White-winged Scoter (235 – almost all of which were seen in two sizable flocks on the boat trip), Long-tailed Duck (219), Common Raven (170), Pine Siskin (150), Rock Pigeon (148), and European Starling (121 – a significant undercount, since I often neglect to carefully note the starlings around this neighborhood). All other species were below 100 total individuals recorded.

I’m working on the 1000 species project as well as the 1000×1 (Song Sparrow), species project – though I have not yet managed to get everything set up how I would like in terms of how I will keep track, I am getting closer. As the year goes on I’ll definitely be dipping into other groups more heavily – especially once spring arrives. In terms of observations for each project, I’m lagging behind, but I think it will be relatively easy to catch up later in the year. Of course, I should probably try to be getting close to done by the time fall arrives, as late fall and early winter aren’t likely to be conducive to picking up additional species, in many respects.

Over the past couple of decades or more, sea otters numbers have increased dramatically in Sitka Sound. When I was growing up, I don’t remember seeing any sea otters until probably the early or mid-90s, and that was up close to Salisbury Sound. These days, it’s not hard to find rafts of 100 or more individuals at a few locations not far from town, and singles or small groups are common in most locations with at least a moderate amount of exposure to the open ocean, including right off shore of Halibut Point Road from Sea Mart to Halibut Point. I’ve also seen them on occasion in the channel and just out from Crescent Harbor. (Though, now that I think about it, I don’t really recall seeing them in highly protected inside channels, though I imagine they move through such places at times.)

Sea otters are well known as keystone species – and as would be expected, the kelp patches have been increasing in size over the last several years. I did not actually pay enough attention to such things when I was growing up to clearly notice the difference, but I suspect some interesting work could be done (and perhaps has been) using aerial photos for comparison. (For those who aren’t familiar with the story – Sea otters are voracious predators of invertebrates, including species that graze on the kelp species that form kelp forests – when sea otters are gone, these grazers are able to keep the kelp mowed down quite effectively.)

Sea otters are of concern to some fisherman because they are voracious predators of species targeted for commercial and subsistence harvest – especially in dive fisheries. There has also been some news lately about efforts to change some of the policies regarding the allowable sale of sea otter skins by Natives (who are allowed to hunt them, but currently are only allowed to sell finished products made from the skins, but not the skins themselves). Given the large and still increasing population, and its impacts on some invertebrate fisheries, as well as the potential economic benefits to sea otter hunters, it’s my understanding that some feel the time is right to reduce some of the restrictions on sale of sea otter products to encourage a higher harvest and perhaps help keep the population from continuing to grow so fast. As with herring this quickly gets into politics and economics – things I’m disinclined to get too involved in.

A question that has come to my mind recently is whether or not the sea otters might have something to do with the increasing abundance of herring. Kelp forests are said to be important for many species, including rearing habitat for the juvenile stages of some fish. I’m uncertain whether herring utilize kelp forests at any stage other than spawning, or to what extent spawning that occurs in/around kelp forests might be influenced relative to a situation where the kelp was not present in that location. I made a cursory look for information about herring life cycle, but wasn’t able to find anything too detailed to convince me one way or another. If anyone has information or ideas about on what impact, if any, returning kelp forests have on herring recruitment and survival, I would definitely be interested in hearing about it.

Today Connor, Rowan and I went out with my dad and a friend to see if we could find a deer at Deep Inlet. Connor was quite enthusiastic and hopeful that he would get to shoot his first deer, or at least be able to see one cleaned/prepared for packing out. It was a sunny pleasant day with little wind, a little chilly in the shade, but not like a day I remember when I was a kid.

After hiking up the hill together, Rowan and I split off from the others. We saw plenty of tracks, but no deer. The last time I was up there was probably when I was around Connor’s age, so though it wasn’t too familiar, I was kind of surprised that I recognized as much as I did. (One thing is for sure, the hike up the hill wasn’t nearly as bad as I remember.) We joined back up after a bit and hiked back.

Along the way back, we followed a bear trail that had some relatively fresh tracks (probably from the day before). I was also interested to see a spot where the trail led up to a sign tree and the vegetation in the trail was distinctly different than that on either side of the trail (or even further away from the tree along the trail).

We checked out where the dead Gray Whale had been hauled last spring. I was a little surprised to see how little of it remained. I guess people came out and salvaged the bones, as there were none of those left that we could see. All we were able to find was a patch of what appeared to be skin/blubber. It seemed odd that bears hadn’t eat it down, but perhaps it wasn’t so good for eating for some reason.

It was a pleasant trip back in the boat – the kids each got a turn at driving. It took Rowan a while to figure out how to keep things going in the direction she wanted to go. We ended up turning circles for long enough that I started to get dizzy, but she finally started to get the hang of it. At the green can out off Galankin Island we saw a lone Steller’s Sea Lion laying out in the sun. It raised its head briefly to look at us before relaxing again.

We ended up making it home by early afternoon.

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This Great Blue Heron was perched on a harbor piling as we were getting to the boat.

This ancestral bear trail led up and past a sign tree.

This ancestral bear trail led up and past a sign tree.

I was struck by the difference in vegetation on and off the trail.

A Steller's Sea Lion was resting on this green buoy on our way home. It took a second to raise its head and look at us before relaxing again.

A Steller's Sea Lion was resting on this green buoy on our way home. It took a second to raise its head and look at us before relaxing again.

A Steller's Sea Lion was resting on this green buoy on our way home. It took a second to raise its head and look at us before relaxing again.

This March has seemed quite dry, with cold temperatures early on and warming later in the month (though still freezing at night). Looking back at the March 2011 weather record for the Sitka Airport, it looks like the cold weather was mostly in February, with only a day or two of particularly frigid conditions. It has been exceptionally dry, however. Rain is falling now and nearly 1/3 of an inch has accumulated in the 3 hours since midnight, but even so – only 1.17 inches has fallen so far (including so far today) and it’s highly unlikely another 4.5 inches will fall in the next 45 hours to bring the total up the the 5.78 inch long-term monthly average. Lack of rain along with relatively cool temperatures have resulted in low levels at both hydro facilities, so the city as asked citizens to reduce power consumption to avoid running the large diesel generators used to supplement power when necessary. Hopefully the current rains help alleviate that problem somewhat.

It seems like many things are running a little late this year as compared to the recent past. I have not seen any wild flowers blooming, but with the recent warmer temperatures and sun, I expect to find blueberries or salmonberries in flower any day. Insects have started showing up – I saw a Snow Sedge (Psychoglypha sp) flying around within the last couple of days. There have also been other flies I do not yet know how to identify.

Herring are starting to mature, and it’s likely the first opening will happen today or tomorrow, at least a week after last year’s. Perhaps they have been waiting for ‘herring weather’ – the mix of snow/rain/sleet/hail/sun/wind changing every 5 minutes that seems to often mark the herring spawn. Until this point it’s been mild with partly to mostly cloudy skies, relatively light winds and little precipitation of any form. The forecast indicates wind, rain, and possibly snow in the forecast through the end of the week. In any case, there are many whales, sea lions, seals, eagles, gulls, and other birds cruising the near shore waters looking for herring schools to feast on. It’s a fun time to be out near the water watching the activity – Connor said a whale even came up close to Sage Rock this morning.

On the bird front – Song Sparrows have started singing in earnest. I was out at 5:30am last week and was surprised to hear so many singing around town well before sunrise. Migrants so far consist of gulls and robins. It would be interesting to know where all the robins that have showed up recently spent the winter, but it certainly seems like more are around in the last week or so, so I believe they have come from somewhere south. I think Dark-eyed Juncos have started to disperse, as I’m not seeing flocks of them as commonly around the neighborhood.

It was a lovely late winter/early spring day with partly cloudy skies and calm conditions. I was able to get out for a trip birding by boat. We went from town out to checkout the waters by Low Island, then along the Kruzof shoreline and into Port Krestof before coming back to town.

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Spent the morning on the Food Web Cruise fund raiser for Sitka WhaleFest. They asked me to be aboard as the bird expert. It’s typically an enjoyable ride on an Alen Marine Sightseeing Vessel. We saw several whales, sea otters, Steller Sea Lions, and of course many birds.

Later this evening I went for a walk to scan gull flocks along the channel. Didn’t find anything unusual.

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Stellar Sea Lions have returned in numbers to feast on the herring moving into shallow waters to spawn.

Three species of gull are shown in this picture of gulls resting on a building along the waterfront.

I was a little surprised to see how close this Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) was to the shore along Halibut Point Road. It was probably within 10 yards, apparently finding food to eat.

Note the open wound on this animal’s nose (click on image to see a somewhat larger version). Sea Otters have fairly rough courtship behaviors, including biting noses rather hard.

While enjoying some late October sun on Harbor Mountain, I noticed something white down on the sound near Vitskari Rocks. At first I thought perhaps it was a boat (or boats) catching the sun just right, but it did not take long for me to realize that was not the case. I was actually seeing the spouts of Humpback Whales (Megaptera noavaeangliae), and there were quite a few whales active in that area. I saw as many 7 or 8 at a time, and I’m pretty sure there were more than that. In the picture above, 6 are easily visible, and the remains of a 7th can be made out as well.

I would not have expected to be able to whale watch from such a distance (about 11 miles and 2000 feet elevation), but now I wonder what it would look like if the whales were breaching. No doubt it would not be as exciting or visceral as being down on the water with them, but I do think it would be interesting.

Gallery: 20101024 – Harbor Mountain Views

A juvenile gull tries for scraps from a feeding Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris). Observed from Sea Mart parking lot.

Early in January I noticed a Sea Otter feeding in the kelp patch right off the Sea Mart Parking lot. The juvenile gull pictured here followed it around pretty closely, presumably hoping to grab a scrap or two from what the otter was eating. Unfortunately, the light and distance were such that I could not make out what the otter was eating, but I imagine it was some sort of echinoderm or mollusc. While I was watching, it didn’t appear that the gull managed to get anything and it eventually drifted away from the otter.

A juvenile gull tries for scraps from a feeding Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris). Observed from Sea Mart parking lot.

Pictures taken from SeaMart parking lot of animals in the kelp beds just off the beach.

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One of at least 3 Horned Grebes working the kelp beds off of the parking lot at Sea Mart.

A juvenile gull tries for scraps from a feeding Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris). Observed from Sea Mart parking lot.

A juvenile gull tries for scraps from a feeding Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris). Observed from Sea Mart parking lot.

Three of five Harbor Seals observed near shore on 1 October 2007 at Totem Park.

Back on the first of October, I mentioned seeing interesting Harbor Seal behavior while at Totem Park.

The photo above shows three of the 5 seals I saw in the same confined area while at the park that day. Though it is not possible to tell from the photo directly, the water they are in is no more than 10 feet deep, and probably closer to 5 or 6 feet. One of the seals is shown holding its nose pointed up out of the water and into the wind. At various times at least three of them did this, and that is what caught my attention.

After an experience in Summer 2006 where seals unexpectedly climbed up rocky islets and the later realization that it was due to Killer Whales in the area, I have tried to keep in mind that, as prey of rather effective hunters, seals must be quite wary, lest they become lunch in a possibly lingering and presumably painful fashion. So that is what came to mind as I observed behavior that very much reminded me of other terrestrial mammals testing the breeze with their nose. In the days that followed, I heard of at least two different reports that Killer Whales had been seen near town over the same time period. Though the sightings I heard about were not in Eastern Channel or closer to the park, the Killer Whales in local waters range widely, often entirely out of Sitka Sound, so it would not be surprising at all for them to be move several miles over the course of hours and days.

An important question that needs to be considered is whether seals even have a decent sense of smell. If not, then it would seem quite unlikely that they were smelling the breeze. Though hardly authoritative, a quick Google search turned up several sites that said Harbor Seals do have a very good sense of smell. This was typically mentioned in the context of a mother’s ability to smell her pup, but I can’t imagine the sense of smell would be so specialized as to only apply in this context.

Finally, there is also a question of whether or not Killer Whales give off an odor that the seals could identify on the breeze. I have never been near Killer Whales when they are breathing, so I do not for sure. It seems fairly likely that they do, however. Humpback Whales certainly do and it’s not clear to me why they would by Killer Whales would not. Perhaps someone who has had close encounters with Killer Whales can leave a comment about their breath.

While interesting, none of this really proves in any way that the seals I saw were sniffing out Killer Whales. Certainly they hang out in the shallows fairly often. I do not remember seeing them stick their noses up before, but then there are lots of things I miss. Still, the evidence seems suggestive to me, and I will certainly keep my eyes open for Killer Whales if I ever see seals acting like this again.

This afternoon we went on an Allen Marine trip for a couple of hours. It was a little breezy, but there were plenty of whales out towards Vitskari.

Weather: Another day of clear and chilly conditions. Winds were a little stronger. There was a pretty good breeze coming out of Silver Bay, it looked like.

Birds: I saw a few birds while we were on the cruise, but I did not get too good of a look at any of them. I think I might have seen some White-winged Scoters, however.

Marine Mammals: There were quite a few whales out toward Vitskari. I got photos of at least 6 different whale tail flukes and I know there were at least a few more that I did not get photos of. Some of them were feeding quite close together.

Flora: It was interesting to see that there is a Mt. Ash tree along the Lincoln Street that still has most of its leaves, and they are green. Of course in the cold temperatures, they were dry and curled up a bit, but it seemed pretty late to have not lost leaves. I also noticed that many of the salmonberry plants along the hill had not dropped leaves before the cold. I wonder if the late spring kept the leaves from ‘wearing out’ and falling off as easily as they might ordinarily (or maybe this is typical and I just haven’t noticed before).

The forecast was for thunderstorms moving through, but this morning it was sunny over town, so I decided to get out and go kayaking between my morning and early afternoon classes. I headed out from Sage Beach up to the Northeast end of the channel and back. It took me about 25 minutes to get from the end of the channel back to Sage. The blue skies persisted into the afternoon, and I decided to head back out after my last class for a couple of hours. This time I went Southwest toward the Eastern Channel and the mouth of Silver Bay. From the middle of Eastern Channel near the mouth of Silver Bay, it took me about an hour to paddle back to Sage Beach. This included a couple of brief stops to take photos of Marbled Murrelets. It probably helped that the wind was in my favor.

Weather: Despite the forecast, the clear weather persisted over town. There were clouds in the distance, but they never really moved on-shore. There was a little breeze coming out of the north when I was in the channel this morning, and it seemed to be coming out of the south when I went to Eastern Channel this afternoon. I think overall the prevailing wind throughout the day was light and out of the northeast, so I am not sure why it was blowing out of the south/southwest when I was out this afternoon.

Birds: My goal (other than just enjoying the nice day) for this morning’s paddle was to see if I could get pictures of Long-tailed Ducks and/or loons in the channel. I did see a couple of groups of Long-tailed Ducks, and was able to get photos of some of them (see above). The first group had 9 birds, and the second 8. I am pretty sure they were different birds.

The gulls seemed to be much less numerous in the channel than the last time I went out that way.

In among the gulls there were several scaups. Most of them seemed to be females or first year birds, but I did not look that close.

I did finally spot a Loon near the breakwater at the Northeast end of the channel. I tried to guess where the loon would come up, but did not have too much luck. Still, I was able to get photos that provided enough detail for me to think it was a Common Loon.

There were several Buffleheads in the area of the breakwater near the Coast Guard gazebo.

This afternoon, as I paddled past the park, I spotted a bird that I thought at first might be a loon. The pictures I took make it seem likely that it was actually a Red-breasted Merganser. It sure looked bigger than that at the time.

There were gulls scattered throughout from Crescent Bay to Eastern Channel. On at least a couple of different occasions, I saw small flocks of gulls actively flying and diving together in a small area. I suspect there must have been some small fish near the surface.

When I got out into Eastern Channel, I started seeing and hearing some alcids. I was not able to get close enough to tell whether the Murres I saw where Common or Thick-billed. There were several Marbled Murrelets, and I was able to get photos of a couple on my way back in. These were actually not too far off-shore from Harris Island.

There was a single loon right out in the middle of Eastern Channel near the mouth of Silver Bay. It was too far away for me to get a positive identification of it, however. I did take a picture, so perhaps someone with better skills than me will be able to tell what it was.

This evening there was a Red-breasted Sapsucker on the trees along Hillcrest Drive. It is the first one of those that I have seen around the house in almost two months.

Other Notes: When I was just paddling in to Sage Beach this morning, I noticed several whale spouts that looked pretty close. If I had to guess, I think they were probably out from Jamestown Bay. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had class that I needed to teach, I would have headed out toward them right then. As it was, they provided some motivation to get out in the afternoon. By this afternoon, they had moved out into the middle of Eastern Channel west of Sugarloaf Mountain. I was operating with time constraints again this afternoon, and though I got close enough to actually see their bodies, I did not have a chance to spend as much time watching them as I might have prefered.

I have been busy with a number of different things over the last couple of weeks and have not managed to make time to keep up with the updates of daily observations. Over this time, I have managed to get out a few times, including a couple of kayaking trips to Crescent Bay, and a trip or two to Starrigavan Estuary. I may write a couple of entries and back date them if I can remember enough of any of these trips that seems like it might worth keeping a record of here.

Weather: Despite October’s fierce reputation for inclement weather, I seems like there may have already been more ‘nice’ days this month than in August and September combined. (Where ‘nice’ means significant sunshine or at least very minimal rain during the day. Warm temperatures are good too.) There certainly have been some rainy days, but on a number of those days, temperatures hit the upper 50’s and it seemed kind of nice with the warmth.

Birds: The peak of fall migration seems to be behind us. I have not seen any warblers for the last week or two. I see an occasional Hermit Thrush, and the number of sparrows of all types (except for resident Song Sparrows) has dropped significantly.

Interesting birds I have seen around the house the last week or so have included a Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, and a Brown Creeper.

The Steller’s Jays are still coming for peanuts. For a week or so there was only one, but a couple of days ago a second one reapeared. The second was far more bold, and I think it may have been the bird that we first started feeding peanuts. I am not sure why it disappeared for awhile, but it did seem to have a droopy left wing when it was perched. I did not notice any problems with its flight, however.

I do not know if this is an unusual year for kittiwakes, or I’m just getting out on the water a little more, but I’ve regularly seen a number of different Black-legged Kittiwakes this fall.

I have also seen a number more non-Bald Eagle raptors than I am used to. In addition to the Sharp-shinned Hawk I saw at the end of September, I have seen what I think is a Merlin a couple of different times as I drove back toward town from the Airport (near the long term parking area). Yesterday it was the young Red-tail Hawk (which we caught a glimpse of today as well). Today there was a young Northern Harrier on Harbor Mountain and another raptor that was too far away for me to tell with certainty (though I’m pretty sure it was not an eagle).

Flora: Plants are definitely responding to the diminishing daylight. Pond-lilies on Swan Lake are largely gone. Mt. Ash trees and the willow in the back yard have yellow leaves that have started to fall. The alders seem to be putting up a fight, as leaves have been slow to drop. Perhaps with the late start they got this spring, they are trying to get everything they can out of these fall days.

Despite the late season, I did notice some yarrow still blooming along Blue Lake Road a couple of days ago.

Other Notes: There are still a few nearly dead pink and/or chum salmon in the lower stretches of Indian River, but most of them seem to be gone. Though I haven’t gone to look for myself, students have told me that there are quite a few silvers in some of the holes a little up river, however.

A couple of different students told me about seeing a pod of Orca come pretty close to shore at Whale Park last week. That would have been pretty neat to see. It reminds me of the thought I try to remember when I’m unmotivated to get out and feeling like there’s probably not much to see anyway: ‘The only thing you can guarantee about seeing interesting things in nature is that you won’t see anything if you don’t get out.’ I suppose the corollary is that the more you get out, the more you will see.

Managed to get out on the kayak for most of the morning. Later in the day went for a drive to both ends of the road. Despite the chill, the sun was appreciated.

Weather: Today was the first mostly sunny day in at least a couple of weeks. It was in the upper 30’s around 9am and it looked like there might be frost on the roof. Winds were calm and temperatures climbed up into the 50’s later in the day. It felt quite warm on the water with the sun reflecting off the calm surface. There was fresh snow on some of the mountains. It looked like the snow probably fell down to about 2400 feet or so, but it was difficult to tell for sure.

Birds: One of the main reasons I wanted to get out on the kayak was to try to get a photo of a Fork-tailed Storm-petrel. Unfortunately, I did not get a good photo, but I saw lots of them. A couple of them even came close enough to me that I just about could have reached out and grabbed them.

I saw lots of gulls at the park, there were a dozen or more Greater Scaups, quite a few Scoters (most and maybe all were Surf Scoters), and Harlequin Ducks out off the river mouth.

The only other ducks I saw were one Teal and a few mallards. There were many more a couple of days ago, so I guess they were
either hiding well up in the grass or perhaps they have moved on with the nicer weather.

There were quite a few Kittiwakes flying and floating around Crescent Bay. I took a picture of one at the mouth of Indian River that I assumed was a Black-legged Kittiwake, but a close look at the photo seems to suggest that it may be a Red-legged Kittiwake.

There were four Common Mergansers opposite the river mouth. I have not seen very many of these birds this fall. I am not sure whether this is a typical pattern, or if usually there are more around at this time of year.

There was a Pigeon Guillemot cruising around the bay. I think it may have been a juvenile, but I am not sure.

When I came back in to Sage Beach, there were a couple of dozen Surfbirds on Sage Rock along with a few Black Turnstones. These are the first Surfbirds I have seen since last spring. There were also a couple of Double-crested Cormorants, a Pelagic Cormorant, many Gulls and four Harlequin Ducks.

Othern Notes: I saw a seal not too far offshore at Totem Park. I kind of wonder if it has taken up residence in the area and is the same one I have been seeing when I walk through the park.

Leaves are turning color on the Mt. Ash and to a lesser extant on the Crabapple trees. Most of the leaves are still on the trees, though they are definitely starting to fall. Devil’s Club leaves are yellowing and falling off.

I did manage to get in a short walk through the park today early in the afternoon and a more leisurely walk through later in the evening.

Weather: It was fairly wet today with a little bit of wind.

Birds: I saw quite a few birds today. There were lots of sparrows around the neighborhood, including Fox Sparrows, Song Sparrows, several Golden-crowned Sparrows, and Savannah Sparrows.

As I was leaving home after a mid-morning snack/brunch, I happened to hear an odd call. I decided to investigate and eventually figured out that it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk. I spent half an hour or so watching it and the Steller’s Jay that has been coming for peanuts.

Later in the afternoon, when I went to the park for the second time, I stopped to look at a Northern Flicker in the alders near the battle site when I caught some motion out of the corner of my eye. I looked up to see a Sharp-shinned Hawk land in the alders. It flew off toward the beach before I could get a photo. However, I did go out to the beach and got there just after a flock of Black Turnstones flushed and flew down the shoreline. I think the hawk may have made an attempt at them. A little later, while I was looking at ducks in the estuary, I saw the hawk chasing a Kingfisher. It also chased after a small bird, probably a Savannah Sparrow. I never did see it catch anything. I think it was the same bird that was around our neighborhood earlier in the day.

There was a Marbled Godwit out on the flats during my first walk through the park, but I did not see it the second trip.

There were several Green-winged Teal and American Wigeons in the estuary along with the Mallards and lots of gulls.

Other birds I saw today included several Fork-tailed Storm-petrels still out in Crescent Bay, an Orange-crowned Warbler in front of Stratton Library, Harlequin Ducks and both Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants out off of Sage Beach and some Winter Wrens in the park.

Other Notes: It looks like a deer nibbled on the leaves of my carrots.

On my second trip through the park, I saw a seal up in the river. The tide was in fairly far, so the water was deep, but it was definitely in the river channel.

I saw at least one squirrel that looked like it was eating alder cones. They are pretty green still, but maybe that’s the best time for the squirrels to get the seeds out.

On the second tour I had today, we pulled up near the rocks a little South of Povorotni Point in the opening of Redoubt Bay to observe the Harbor Seals. Perhaps it was the relatively bright weather, but it seemed like there was an unusually rich assortment of colors and patterns of seal fur. This fit in nicely with one of the things I like to tell the passengers about seals. It is relatively uncommon for there to be significant difference in appearance between individuals in a species. It is somtimes possible to identify individuals based on subtle differences, and there are often signficant juvenile/adult or male/female differences, but for the most part the overall coloring of an animal within a specific population group will be very similar. This is not the case with harbor seals. Until this job with Allen Marine, I had not had much opportunity to see seals hauled out and had never really thought about this fact. I am pretty sure I learned about it on Encounters a locally produced program that
emphasizes experiences in the Alaskan wilderness.

One of the other things I often tell folks is how the seals will float in the water as the tide is going out so they do not need to climb up on the rock. Unlike Steller’s sea lions, the harbor seals seem to be weak climbers. It seemed that no sooner had I said this when I noticed a seal climbing out of the water up on to the rocks. This was followed by a second and third. I felt a little silly, but tried to recover by noting how their climbing was fairly labored and weak, and I had not seen them doing this before. I did not think much about it until later.

After we dropped our passengers off at their cruise ship, the captain told me that there was a pod of orcas teaching their young to hunt. He said as we were rounding Povortni Point he heard on the radio from another Allen Marine vessel that the orcas were at Caution Island with a harbor seal. We were already running just a little bit late, so we couldn’t afford to go back (as it was, the ship left promptly after we dropped off our passengers).

The news we heard from the boats that were able to watch was the adults were using a harbor seal to help their young practice hunting techniques. The adults would keep the seal from getting away and demonstrate techniques of attacking and stunning an animal in preparation for eating it. These include ramming, slapping with tails, and jumping out of the water to land on top of the prey. Apparently a later boat saw them actually consuming the seal. I imagine that the final minutes (hour?) of the seals life was terrifying, the stuff of seal nightmares. I can’t help but think the seals that were uncharacteristically climbing up on the rocks (which we observed probably about an hour before the orcas were spotted) knew the orcas were in the area and wanted to get out of the water if at all possible.

The last I heard, the orcas had turned their attention to ‘playing’ with a common murre. Based on what I have heard previously, it is unlikely that they will consume the bird, but they do seem to use them on occasion to practice hunting techniques.

It was a little disappointing to find out we just missed this opportunity to see some orca activity. It is my understanding that these animals move through Sitka Sound on a fairly regular basis, but they move quickly and do not seem to stay in one area for long, so seeing them seems involve getting a little lucky sometimes. People who have worked these tours for a number of years told me they usually only see orcas a handful of times a year. What made today even more interesting to me was that just yesterday I read about an orca/harbor seal encounter witnessed earlier this month north of Sitka (scroll down a little to see photos and link to video; scroll down into the comments to see a more complete story, the comment begins The story in two parts).

I spent about 4 very soggy hours down at Totem Park taking pictures. My intention was to take pictures of hummingbirds in the fireweed and shorebirds at high tide along the beach between the river and the battle site bench, but I ended up spending a fair amount of time trying to find what shelter I could from the falling rain.

Weather: Very wet. The rain never fell exceptionally hard, but it was pretty steady, with only a couple of times where it let up briefly. Winds were calm.

Birds: There were probably only a dozen or so gulls. Some of the juveniles were acting a little strange, flying erratically, diving at and chasing each other, and squawking. I never could figure out what they were up to.

As I was hanging out under an alder for a little protection from the rain, I saw a small flock of mallards swim by off shore headed toward the river mouth.

There was a lone Surf Scoter a ways off the beach.

I did notice some birds in the trees and fireweed. It was a little tough to identify them with the brief looks I got, but I am sure I saw Wilson’s and Orange-crowned Warblers. As I was leaving the beach, one bedraggled Orange-crowned Warbler came out into the open. It looked like it was feeling about as tired of being soaked wet as I was (see below).

There were a couple of Spotted Sandpipers that showed up at the park beach, but I also saw two of them along Lincoln Street Beach on the larger shore rocks between Merrill Rock and Sage Rock.

Two Greater Yellowlegs flew in and spent some time resting. I tried to sneak up on them, but had limited success.

There were probably at least a dozen or two Least Sandpipers still feeding at high tide. This was fewer than I had seen the last couple of days, however.

In among the Least Sandpipers was a lone Western Sandpiper.

I saw at least four Rufous Hummingbirds feeding in the fireweed. It was difficult to tell for sure, and for a time I thought there were only three.

As I was getting up to leave, at least five Semipalmated Plovers landed. I did not recognize them at first, as their breeding plumage (which I have seen before) is a little different their non-breeding, which they were showing today.

Flora: There was an oddly misshapen fireweed. It was normal up to a certain point on its stem where the main stem became quite flat. Leaves and flowers still grew out of the stem, but it was not typical.

There seem to be quite a few huckleberries in a couple locations along Lincoln. They’re not abundant, but it looks like the huckleberry crop might not be a total bust for the dedicated picker.

Other Notes: For much of the time after the tide had moved in over the flats, I saw a lone harbor seal in the water above the flats. It may have been chasing salmon, but I did not ever see it moving very actively.

Today was the first time I really noticed that it’s getting dark earlier. It was dark a little after 9pm.

On our way back north, we were going to take a look at a gray whale that had been spotted by another Allen Marine vessel.  As we were approaching the area where the gray whale had been seen, the humpback whale breached in the distance (though within sight). It started waving its pectoral flukes in the air and rolling, with both a pectoral fluke and tail fluke showing out of water.   The gray whale did not seem nearly as charismatic as this active humpback, so we went towards the humpback to get a better look at its activities.  While we, a couple of other Allen Marine boats, and a smaller boat or two that were in the area watched, this whale repeatedly breached. It was pretty amazing. I have included some of the photos below.

To all the Red Hat Society ladies who were on the tour with us and read this entry, I hope you enjoyed the rest of your trip.  It was fun having you on tour.