Daily Observations

Sunday:
I had a basketball game and stopped by Swan Lake on the way.
Weather: Mostly cloudy with some fresh snow over night.

Birds: There were three Ring-necked Ducks at the lake along with the Mallards and gulls. The gulls left shortly after I arrived due to an influx of eagles. The eagles showed up to get some food that someone was tossing out on the ice. It was pretty impressive how many eagles arrived in fairly short order. I counted something like 20, and I’m sure they were not all in the trees surrounding the lake beforehand. This time of year the eagles have to be pretty alert for any chance at food, I guess.

Monday:
Weather: It was a little breezy today.

Birds: The Cackling Goose was at the lake along with a Ring-necked Duck and the Mallards. I saw quite a few Long-tailed Ducks in the channel. I followed up on a report of waxwings at the Baranof Street cemetary, but did not find any when I visited.

Tuesday:
I stopped by Swan Lake and the cemetary after dropping Rowan off at preschool.

Weather:
It was a little breezy and the sun was shining. The patch of open water on Swan Lake shrunk overnight.

Birds: I saw a few Bohemian Waxwings at the cemetary this morning. They seemed to be just waking up, as they were not very active at all when I arrived. I would not have noticed them except for a call they were making that was unfamiliar to my ears. By the time I left a half-hour later, they were gone. There was a pretty good flock of Pine Siskins in the alders near the entrance to the cemetary.

Only one Ring-necked Duck remained on Swan Lake. The Cackling Goose is still there, however. Several Glaucous-winged Gulls, and at least 2 Thayer’s Gulls were there.

On a feeder along Park Street I noticed a White-crowned Sparrow and another sparrow that I think was either a White-crowned or Golden-crowned Sparrow. Also there were quite a few Pine Siskins.

Wednesday
Didn’t make it anywhere today.
Weather: Quite a bit of snow throughout the day.

Thursday:
Weather: Clear and calm today.

Friday-Saturday:
Didn’t get out much. Saturday night was quite windy.

Leave a Reply