On a Lifelong Journey to Learn my Place
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.
The gathering of gulls at Swan Lake this time of year provides a good opportunity to practice identifying them.
The kids and I walked around town today to see if we could pick up any birds that were missed on the Christmas Bird Count yesterday. We were able to add three to the list, Lesser Scaup, Herring Gull, and Hermit Thrush. We had hoped to find Bohemian Waxwings, which we had seen as recently as last Tuesday (two days before count week started), but were not successful in that regard.
While walking around the Baranof Street Cemetery, I noticed a patch of moss I had photographed a couple of years ago, but this time it had sporophytes, so I took pictures and made a small collection with hopes of getting it identified.
Took a couple of trips to Totem Park, one yesterday and one today. Yesterday I saw 3 Northern Pintails, 6 smaller dabblers (I thought Green-winged Teal at the time, though they may have been Northern Shovelers), at least 4 Caspian Terns (including a hatch-year bird), many Thayer’s Gulls, Mew Gulls, a handful of Herring Gulls, … Read more