After January’s big water, I thought it might interesting to pay more attention to the water levels, so I’ll take some photos from the Sawmill Creek road bridge from time to time for a record.

On our walk to the park last Friday, I noticed that Indian River had essentially no ice in it. Given the extreme (for here) cold we had been feeling for the past several days, I was a bit surprised by this.

By comparison, last year after a few days of freezing temperatures that were not nearly as cold as this year’s, the river was nearly completely covered in ice at the park.

I heard from someone who hiked to Indian River Falls this week, and he said there was no ice on the river until after the first bridge – after which the river was almost entirely iced over. I have previously noticed this (at the time unexpected) ice distribution on Indian River and realized that the west fork of Indian River runs warmer and does not freeze. This is due to the fact that not far above the confluence, the entire flow of the river is underground in normal-low flow conditions.

My guess is the flow from the west fork this year is warmer than during the cold snap last year (it could also just be putting more volume out, taking that much longer to cool off to freezing, but the water levels didn’t seem that much higher to me). A plausible explanation might be the warmer and much wetter weather that occurred in December this year relative to last year. Perhaps this influx of relatively warm water takes a while to move through the ground, so the pulse of warmer water was still flowing even after a week or more of cooler weather.

A couple of questions come to mind that wouldn’t be that hard to collect data for: How do the west fork and the falls fork of Indian River compare in temperature over the course of the year. How fast does the river cool off moving down stream in cold conditions? The best way to answer the first question would be to place a couple of ibuttons in waterproof enclosures just up from the confluence along each fork of the river. (The trick would be getting them secure enough to avoid losing them in high water.) Probably the second question would be best looked at by actually measuring in several locations along the river during a cold snap.

The kids and I braved the wind to walk down to the park and see what might be around. I thought the gusts of wind pushing spray across the bay was particularly interesting.

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Red-breasted Sapsucker along SJ Hatchery outflow.

Red-breasted Sapsucker along SJ Hatchery outflow.

Pacific Loon along Sage Beach.

Pacific Loon along Sage Beach.

Pacific Loon along Sage Beach. This bird seemed to have an injury or abnormal growth just behind its head.

Pacific Loon along Sage Beach. This bird seemed to have an injury or abnormal growth just behind its head.

A lone male Common Goldeneye was riding t he waves.

One of the buoys marking the tideflats at Totem Park was taking its share of waves.

Wind-blown spray blurs the view across Crescent Bay.

From time to time an especially strong gust pushed spray across the water.

Indian River from bridge in Totem Park.

Ducks taking refuge from the wind close to shore.

A male Gadwall was hanging in with the Mallards at Totem Park.

Red-breasted Sapsucker on alder tree near SJ Hatchery.

Red-breasted Sapsucker on alder tree near SJ Hatchery.

While resources for marine algae in Alaska are pretty good, there doesn’t seem to be much available for freshwater algae. While doing some looking today, I was reminded of something the kids and I found last summer on a walk to Indian River – at first I thought it might be an algae, but later realized it was most likely a freshwater sponge, possibly in the genus Spongilla. Given it’s green color, there’s a good chance it had symbiotic algae associated with it, however.

I had never realized there were freshwater sponges until finding these growing on rocks and sticks in a roadside pool that makes up part of the drainage creek of the borrow pond along Indian River Road. In some brief looking on-line, I mostly found general information about sponges, but nothing that helped me narrow down too much what kind I might have found. I did learn they can apparently go into a dormant state to deal with adverse conditions. Like their marine counterparts, freshwater sponges filter water through the pores to capture their diet of microscopic organisms. I’m not sure how they move from one freshwater body to another, but I imagine they hitch rides on birds, mammals, or other highly mobile creatures. I have no idea how common they are in this area – I’ve never noticed them before, but past experience suggests that’s not necessarily a good indication that they are unusual.

While walking by Indian River this morning, I was interested to see the water still flowing fairly high, but the color of the water was much grayer than I typically expect for flows this high. Most times when there is heavy enough rain to raise levels, the river is brown. I have always heard this is due to tannins that leach into the surface and near-surface waters of the forests and muskegs. That said, now that I think about it, it’s not entirely clear to me why this wouldn’t be going on all the time. Perhaps in periods without heavy rain, there is water with tannins coming in, but it’s a relatively small part of the overall flow, with the bulk of it being from snow melt and ground water. With heavy rainfall, most of the flow is from surface or near-surface runoff which is presumably pretty effective at leaching out the tannins. It would be interesting to know more. At any rate, I assume that currently the relatively high water is due to rainfall in part, but also a fair amount of snow melt. I’m not sure why it was gray, however. In the late spring on warm days, the river level can rise noticeably, but when I’ve seen it at that time, it’s still running clear. I wonder where the sediment was coming from today.

On another note, a hummingbird visited this morning a couple of times. I didn’t get a great look at it, but it seemed like it may have been a female (or young male) Anna’s Hummingbird.

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Rain and on-going snowmelt have raised the river above normal flow levels.

Rain and on-going snowmelt have raised the river above normal flow levels.

Rain and on-going snowmelt have raised the river above normal flow levels.

Took a quick afternoon trip up Indian River Valley to swap out ibuttons. It was a clear and chilly day.

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Indian River Cascade illuminated by the low-elevation sun of winter.

It's not difficult to tell where the sun doesn't reach in the muskeg this time of year.

This lichen may be Dimerella lutea, but I'm not sure.

Large frost crystalls have built up on the needles of a muskeg shore pine.

I was amused to see this deer close to the trail near the end of deer season. No doubt some hunters would have liked to take this shot.

I took a brief walk this afternoon down by the beach then through the park to the post office. My timing turned out to be good, as the rain had stopped and I even managed to catch a break in the clouds which allowed the sun to shine briefly while I was down by the beach.

When I left the house, I noticed quite a bit of bird activity. Although I did see a couple of chickadees at the feeders, mostly what I observed was a lot of high-frequency calling going on from juncos, chickadees, kinglets, and sparrows. It almost seemed as if they were a bit frenetic – perhaps they were taking advantage of the break in the weather to forage as much as they could in the short time they had remaining before sundown. When I got to the bottom of the hill path on the short cut to Lincoln Street, a Winter Wren popped up and chirped at me. I paused to look at it, and watched it fly ahead to a clump of lady ferns, where it disappeared under the remains of last years fronds. I heard a couple more chirps from it as I walked by.

Just as I arrived down at the water, a break in the clouds to the southwest allowed the sun to break through and illuminate the shoreline from the rocks where I was standing over to the forest standing above the beach at Totem Park. The direct light did not last for long, but its warm tones highlighted the rocks and trees on the beach, as well as the white foam at the edge of the water where the pulsing waves thrown up by the brisk SW wind were breaking apart on the large boulders only partially covered by the high tide. Offsetting these warm tones were the darker blues and grays in the background, where waters reflected the heavy overcast still blocking the sun, as it had for most of the day.

Out front in front of the park I noticed 8 Barrow’s Goldeneye, diving repeatedly to forage under the waves where they were breaking over the flats. Further out were 3 Red-breasted Mergansers – a species which has seemed to be sparse along the road system this winter – though I counted over 40 of them just south of town on the Christmas Bird Count at the beginning of the month.

Indian River was running higher than normal for this time of year. It was in no danger of flooding its banks in the park, but the rains combined with melting snow brought on by warmer temperatures covered all the unvegetated gravel and cobbles in the river bed.

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A decent breeze kicked up waves that broke on the rocks near Totem Park.

A decent breeze kicked up waves that broke on the rocks near Totem Park.

Totem Park Trail

Rain and melting snow raised the water level in Indian River above normal winter flow rates.

A decent breeze kicked up waves that broke on the rocks near Totem Park.

Note the two-toned look to the primaries.

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Juvenile Thayer's Gull (Larus thayeri) feeding in Indian River.

Juvenile Thayer's Gull (Larus thayeri) feeding in Indian River.

Most likely an eggshell from a recently hatched Varied Thrush. The adults of many species apparently take the shells away from the nest so they do not become an attractant to predators.

This eggshell fragment was laying on the moss at the edge of a gravel bar on Indian River shortly above the second bridge. Given the size and color, I figured it must be a thrush egg. However, it seems a bit too early for Hermit Thrushes and especially Swainson’s Thrushes to have nestlings. American Robin eggs are pure blue, and the book I have about eggs and nestlings shows Varied Thrush eggs being pure blue as well. I took a look on the Birds of North America On-line account of Varied Thrush and found a photo there of eggs with light speckling. Though that example was not nearly as speckled as this, given the time and location, my best guess is this was from a recently hatched Varied Thrush. I do not expect the nest was particularly close, as it is my understanding that many bird parents will carry such things away from the nest in an effort to help avoid detection and predation of their young.

Most likely an eggshell from a recently hatched Varied Thrush. The adults of many species apparently take the shells away from the nest so they do not become an attractant to predators.

Gulls feed on pink salmon spawning in Indian River.

While walking at the park yesterday morning, Connor and I noticed this fog/mist hanging over the river. Connor thought it was from the stink of the dying salmon, since he had apparently previously seen it on the flume when salmon were dying in it. I’m not convinced that’s what it is from, though I guess it might be related to the fish in the stream (I don’t really remember whether I’ve seen it when there aren’t salmon in the river).

Gulls feed on pink salmon spawning in Indian River.

Pictures from a hike up the West Fork of Indian River

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Four spruce trees rise up to substantial heights near the west fork channel.

It apperas that the top of each of these trees has been knocked out at least once, and perhaps several times.

The confluence of the falls tributary and the main channel of the West Fork of Indian River.

I was interested to see high water had deposited rocks on top of the snow.

I was interested to see high water had deposited rocks on top of the snow.

Taken shortly above the first bridge on Indian River Trail.

Taken near the confluence of the main West Fork and the muskeg tributary.

Somewhat downstream from the big Hemlock.

The falls tributary of the West Fork of Indian River.

Heavy rains on top of melting snow raised the level of Indian River substantially.

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I hvae not previously noticed Rowan Trees (Sorbus aucuparia)

I hvae not previously noticed Rowan Trees (Sorbus aucuparia) responding to sapsucker wells in quite this way.

With warmer temperatures and heavy rain on top of snow, Indian River water levels rose to at leat a couple of feet above normal.

Connor and Rowan braved the rain with me to see how high the water was in Indian River.

With warmer temperatures and heavy rain on top of snow, Indian River water levels rose to at leat a couple of feet above normal.

Connor and Rowan braved the rain with me to see how high the water was in Indian River.

Connor and Rowan braved the rain with me to see how high the water was in Indian River.

Although water volume was significantly greater than normal, it was still well below the highest levels I've seen.

The pipe for the SJC flume gets quite slippery when wet. Connor is climbing back up after slipping into the snow.