Normally, when my parents’ early August visit is too early for the blueberries to be ripe on Harbor Mountain. However, with this year’s minimal snow pack and early melt, I thought there was a chance some would be ripe, and had suggested that we go up there an look. After I got back from pick-up ultimate and had a chance to shower and get ready, my parents and I headed out the road (my mom was planning to just stay in the car reading a book or napping).

I needed to change out ibuttons, so while I was doing that my dad looked around at the berry bushes along that section of road. He was finding quite a few ripe berries, but not much in the way of heavy production. Still, compared to Idaho huckleberry picking it was pretty easy and fast. I suggested we hike for a bit to go to a place I’ve seen lots of berries before – though it would require ‘about 45 minutes’ to get there. My dad was hesitant, since he didn’t really want to walk that far only to find that the berries weren’t any better there, but in the end we went for it.

My dad lead the way on what turned out to be a clothes drenching, lung-busting, thigh killing march. I’m not sure why he felt the need to go so fast, but I was thinking the shower had been a waste of time by the end. I’m going to say that it was tiring to keep up with him because we were up close to the elevations he lives at (and nearly two thousand feet higher than I’m used to) and I had already gotten tired from playing ultimate earlier. I’ll just ignore the fact that he’s over 70 and I’m under 40 (or perhaps I should just applaud and congratulate him for being in such good shape at 71 – but that’s kind of hard with my hands on my knees sucking wind).

One high/low light of the way up was getting stung by a yellow jacket. At least I think that’s what it was, I was just walking a few feet behind my dad when I felt a stinging on my lower shin. My initial response was to kind of scratch at it with my foot while looking down, and I didn’t really get a good look. It took a moment to realize I had been stung – as far as I know, only my second time (the first was when a bee got caught between the upper part of my hiking boots and my sock). The sting didn’t swell up or anything, but there was a circle of pain a couple of inches across for the next half hour or so.

After about 35 minutes we made it to the area I had previously seen some heavily loaded blueberry bushes. There was nothing quite like that this year, but the blueberries were more abundant than in the place where my dad had first been looking. He ultimately wished he had brought his berry picker, since many of the bushes were a bit sparse for efficient hand picking, but would have raked up quickly with the picker. For my part, I focused on the dwarf blueberries (Vaccinium caespitosum). Unlike the early blueberries (V. ovalifolium) only about half of them were ripe, but it seems like a good crop this year, so there were still plenty of ripe ones. In the end we (my dad) got maybe a gallon or so of early blueberries and we ended up with probably 3/4 gallon of dwarf blueberries.

As it was getting on toward 8:30, we were trying to pick what we could of the ripe dwarf blueberries in ‘one last patch’ when I heard my dad say “Oh man!” I looked up to see him standing looking away from me and then I heard kind of a snort (like a horse might make), looked toward the sound just uphill to the right of him and saw a bear trotting up and away from us. Just before the bear moved over a high spot and around a corner, my dad said “Oh, there’s a bear!” I had initially assumed that he was speaking about the bear, but it turned out he had seen another bunch of dwarf blueberries that we weren’t going to have time to pick. My guess is he had done this just as the bear was walking down towards us (not realizing we were there), then was disappointed to have his/her solitude broken by the likes of my dad and I. My dad heard the snort, thought I was making it, looked back and me and then up to where I was looking, and that’s when he realized the bear was there. It probably had gotten within 30 feet or less of him. Fortunately, it (presumably) hadn’t made it to the bucket of already picked blueberries that was sitting up near where the bear was walking. It would have been a bummer to have the bear eat them, though I guess it would have made a good story. The other amusing thing to me about all of this, is my dad had just told me a couple of days before that he had never seen a bear while he was out hunting, berry picking, or fishing (the streams) in all the years he had done those things here.

We did make it back to the car as it was getting dusky. I lead the way back and took a slightly less brisk pace, but it also helped that much of it was going with gravity instead of against it.

Other notes: It was interesting to be between the clouds, they moved up and down from below a bit, though mostly we were out of them. It remained overcast above. Also, there were many moths flying around – I was wishing I had brought my net. Perhaps another time.

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While waiting for others to show up for a hike at Indian River trailhead, I saw someone start up the trail. She came back just a few minutes later and said hello to me – I had not recognized her at first, but she reminded me she had been working with Cascade and Matt on their project at John Brown’s Beach. She said she had planned to go for a longer hike, but guys working up on the water treatment facility had just seen two bears walk by a few minutes before.

I was part of a larger group (13 of us all together) and not particularly concerned about bears, but it was fun to see very clear fresh looking foot prints about 5 minutes up the trail. Fish are starting to move up the river (in fact it was just before this that we stopped to watch an eagle eating a fish – which I’ll post about in the next day or two), so hopefully the bears that have been getting into things in several neighborhoods around town will find their fill of fish and reduce the chances of a negative encounter with people.

Questions:

• How often do you notice wild animal tracks when you are out and about?
• How many bears use Indian River trail?
• Was the bear that made these tracks male or female (is it possible to tell)?
• Where will this bear go to den up for the winter?

On a November hunting trip we followed a fairly long bear trail for a while. At one point along the trail we came upon a section leading up to a sign tree that stood out to me. I’ve seen several other trails where there were the worn in foot prints and noticed different vegetation at the base of the tree, but I don’t remember seeing such a distinct vegetation difference elsewhere along the trail.

In particular, I noticed there were different species of mosses and the sedges seemed to be largely absent. While I had previously figured the vegetation differences at the base of sign trees were due to the bears standing there repeatedly and moving around (as they rubbed their back against the tree or whatever else they did), I don’t think that is a good explanation for this trail. Given the distinct foot prints, I suspect most bears place their feet rather deliberately upon approach, in fact the ‘hot feet’ were even more worn in there than they had been elsewhere along the trail, which would suggest they got more consistent use. The elevation and ground of the trail didn’t seem significantly different than either side (that is, I don’t think it was better drained).

My current best guess is the difference was due to frequent urination by the bears on their approach and/or departure. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures from both directions, but my recollection is that one side had a longer portion of trail with the different vegetation than the other. I have the sense that bears probably urinate more on approach then departure (assuming they do it all, which I am not sure of either), but I don’t have a good reason why that might be the case, nor any particular evidence to support it at this point. I’ve heard of at least one person observing a bear pissing as it deliberately walked along one of those hot foot sign trails, which is what made me think of that as a possibility here. I also suspect urine would provide additional nutrients that could influence what species are most competitive.

One way to get some verification would be get a wildlife trail cam and monitor the location for a season to see what shows up. If I ever manage to do that, I’ll be sure to post a follow-up on the weblog.

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.

One morning last week I heard what sounded like a sizable flock of geese flying overhead, so I decided to head outside and take a look. I saw two large groups, both flying northwest over town. Connor and Rowan later told me they had seen the same flocks out by Whale Park while they were riding the bus. I’m not sure why they were heading in opposition to their seasonal migration direction, but my guess is they were looking for a suitable place to put down after flying through much of the night (a few days before, I had heard many flocks flying overhead through the night).

See below for a modified version of the first image with counts.

Fresh snow blankets the Sisters in this view from the bench muskeg on Indian River Trail.

A couple of weeks ago I took advantage of the first sunny day in ages and went for a hike up Indian River Trail. With only 3 hours or so, I did not have a lot of time, but it was nice to get out and enjoy the bright conditions.

Indian River Trail bridge over the creek that drains Billy Basin.

I made it as far as Billy Basin Creek bridge before I turned around in order to get back in time for my afternoon responsibilities.

Fresh Brown Bear tracks on Indian River Trail.

On the way back, I noticed some fresh Brown Bear tracks in the mud. They were headed down the trail. They seemed pretty obvious, but I had not noticed them on the way up. It could have been the lighting wasn’t as good, since the sun had not risen high enough to light the valley bottom, but it’s also possible that the tracks were made in the hour or so between the times when I passed that spot on the trail.

Weather:  There was some low clouds and fog in the morning.  They started clearing off through late morning, and there were some cloud breaks before it became overcast.  The rain held off until later in the evening.

Birds:  At swan lake this evening I saw a Green-winged Teal and I am pretty sure there was also an American Wigeon.  There were many Mallards with young in various stages of development.
Flora: It has been awhile since I hiked Mosquito Cove.  I had forgotten how lush some of the mosses are along the trail.

The big thing of the day was slime molds.  I think there were at least four different kinds of slime molds that we saw along the trail.  Some of them were visible at more than one location.

Melissa was looking at the beach fringe at Mosquito Cove and noticed a Galium that did not seem to be cleavers or sweat scented bedstraw.  After looking it up in the book when we got home, she concluded that it was probably little bedstraw.

Other Notes:  Bear droppings were plentiful along the trail.  A sign posted along the trail indicated that bear had been seen on the trail most days over the last week or so.

There were a couple of seiners making sets just off shore from the beach part of the Mosquito Cove trail loop.

I had two tours today for Allen Marine.  The weather was a little sloppy south of town, so both trips we went over to the beach near Pt. Brown.

Weather:  It was rainy and breezy this morning.

Birds:  There was a flock of shorebirds that flew off the beach while we were there.  They looked large and were quite vocal, though I did not get a good enough look at them to get an identification.

I think I saw a flock of phalaropes flying, though I am not familiar enough with them to be certain.

While we were stopped near Vitskari to watch whales, I noticed a bird that I thought at first was a
gull.  As we approached, I realized that it was not.  Unfortunately, I did not have my camera handy and by the time I got it, the bird was some distance away and I was unable to take a good photo.  I think it was a shearwater.

Flora:  At Point Brown beach the coralroot orchids were just about done with their blooming.  Cleavers seemed to be in their prime blooming time.  Beach groundsel was reaching its peak in some locations, but had not started blooming in other locations on the beach.

Other Notes:  There was a set of relatively small bear tracks along the upper part of the beach.  There were also several sets of deer tracks.

My parents are in town and my dad and I went over to the airport to pick some strawberries. We also went down to the park this evening so he could see what spearscale looked like and to check out the cherry tree.

Weather: Very wet. The rain did actually stop briefly for a time this evening, but not for too long. Winds seemed to be light, when they were noticable.

Birds: The fall migration is getting started. There were at least 50 Black Turnstones down at the park this evening as well as one probably Rock Sandpiper and one bird that I believe was a dowitcher. The bird that I think was a dowitcher had a flight call that seemed a bit different than I remember from the Short-billed Dowitchers, so I am wondering if it could be a Long-billed Dowitcher.

There were some gulls along the beach, with quite a few of them looking like Mew Gulls.

Off-shore aways from the mouth of Indian River, there was a single Surf Scoter.

On the way back from the park this evening, we saw a juvenile Hermit Thrush hopping about catching inch worms.

Flora: Despite the abundant blooms a month or so ago, I could not find any still developing cherries on the tree.

I picked a couple of carrots today. They are doing well. The kids and Melissa both liked their taste.

My dad and I went over to the airport strawberry patch and got about a quart of strawberries. Since the strawberries I tried to transplant a few days ago do not look like they are doing so well (it didn’t help that I waited two or three days to replant them). My dad and I got some new plants and planted them when we got home. Hopefully they will do a little better.

Other Notes: I have heard that there are a number of bears around town currently. There were signs on the trails near the Raptor Center indicating that a bear had been seen in the area recently. I also heard about a couple of bears out at Starrigavan and one up along Edgecumbe drive. With the poor berry crop, I wonder if bears will wander into town more than they have the last couple of years. Hopefully, for the sake of the bears, the salmon run is not too bad. They have started to move up into Indian River and there were quite a few jumping along the shore by Arrowhead Trailer Court near the mouth of Indian River.

There was a seal that was hanging out in the water of what would be the southern large tidepool. It seemed to be staying in one spot, though it would sometimes dip its head under the surface. We saw it on our way down the beach, and also on the way back, 15 or 20 minutes later.

Clearly I have not managed to keep up with the updates over the last couple of weeks. I have been spending some time outside, mostly with work, but my attention has been elsewhere.

A couple of things I forgot to mention previously were the berries. What few salmonberries there are started get ripe two or three weeks ago. The blueberries also started getting ripe a week or two ago. It looks like it’s going to be a poor berry crop all around this year.

I spent three days in Juneau this week. On my way to the airport on Tuesday morning, I heard what I thought was a yellowlegs calling near the airport lagoon.

In Juneau I noticed some interesting differences in flora. The thimbleberries seem to be more common there than in Sitka. Also some plants that I tend to associate with alpine or sub-alpine meadows were in the montane forest on Mt. Roberts. There also seemed to be a fair amount of Ribes lacustre around Juneau. I have only seen that noticed that once in the Sitka area, north of town on Piper Island.

Also while I was in Juneau, I saw a black bear getting into a garbage can. That seems to be more of a problem in Juneau than in Sitka.

Last Friday I had a pretty fun tour. It was my first time on the smaller 6-pack catamaran. The tours on this boat just have a captain and crew member, with a maximum of 6 passengers. This particular tour had three folks. We had good views of humpback whales, great looks at Tufted Puffins, a good minke whale sighting and a stop off at the beach near Pt. Brown. The people were interesting to talk to. One of the ladies on the trip was a plant and bird enthusiast, so she asked a lot of questions about the birds and plants we saw.

A week ago Thursday I went over to Kruzof on a trip that was primarily for looking at seaweed. A group of Phycologists from the international conference being held in Juneau came to Sitka for a field trip. There were a few spaces available on the boat, so I took advantage of the opportunity to get over there. I saw new-to-me plants, and found a bird nest. I may yet get an entry written about that trip specifically.

Weather has been varied overall. There were a few nice days, but there’s been a lot of rain. I guess that Wednesday was pretty nice, but I was in Juneau (where it was pretty nice as well).

I took a couple of other folks out on a hike up the West Fork of Indian River valley today. Our intention was to visit the large hemlock tree my brother showed me a couple of
years ago.

Weather: It started out cloudy, with the cloud layer at around 2000 feet. By around noon the clouds had started breaking up, and sunny skies prevailed throughout the rest of the day. There was a good breeze, though I failed to note the direction.

Birds: The woods were much quieter than last time I went up Indian River. There were a number of juvenile birds, including Winter Wrens, Varied Thrush, and what I think was a Hermit Thrush.

One of my hiking companions had to head back early and told me later that he had found a hawk feather on his way back. He thought it was from either a Sharp-shinned Hawk or juvenile Goshawk.

As has been the case quite often in recent days, there were eagles active around the neighborhood. One even spent some time perched in a relatively small tree right across from the house.

Flora: Flowers blooming included Heart-leaved Twayblade, Ground Dogwood, Mountain Arnica, plantanthera orchids, and a few others I do not recall right now.

The most interesting plant experience for me was probably the discovery of many patches of Goblin’s Gold moss. I did not have my tripod, so I could not get very good photos of it, but many of the root wads from overturned trees had it growing on them.

We did measure the hemlock tree to be over 100 inches in diameter. In addition to this, we measured a few spruce trees that seemed fairly large. The largest of those we measured was over 90 inches in diameter.

There was a white slime mold in evidence on the trunk of a tree that had fallen down some time ago.

Enchanter’s Nightshade is a small plant that forms a ground cover in some places. It was abundant throughout the hike today, though in one place there was a small area with none growing in it, though it was growing all around. The patch of ground was not totally bare, but it definitely did not have many plants growing in it compared to ground just adjacent. There was not a clear reason that I could see for this to be the case.

Invertebrates: In the middle sister muskeg where I previously observed emerging dragonflies there were many adult dragonflies and damselflies in evidence. I was puzzled somewhat by how small they seemed to be. I am pretty sure the newly emerged dragonflies I saw before were Hudsonian Whitefaces, and today there were definitely many of these flying around. However, the ones flying around today seemed distinctly smaller than what I had seen before. I also noticed this effect with a couple of Four-spotted Skimmers. My best guess is that when their exoskeleton dries, it shrinks somewhat. I previously observed them just just after emergence, so perhaps they were still not completely dried out.

Also in the middle sister muskeg, we had some fun looking at the critters in the puddles. I pulled out a large caddisfly encased in its larval home. Apparently these insect larva build their home with miniture logs which they extrude after processing plant fibers. They are able to stick them together to make a long tube in which they live.

In addition to the many different creatures living below, I happened to notice a spider running across the surface of a puddle. This was not something I remembered seeing before.

This evening the kids brought in a large dark colored moth they had found in the back yard. It seemed unable to fly, though I do not know why. Its underwings were more of an orangish color.

Mammals: As has been the case most times that I have been up this way, there was relatively fresh bear sign. We saw some tracks and places where skunk cabbage had been uprooted, but more significantly there was some pieces of deer hide (that did not look too old, the hair did not seem to be coming out yet). Near the deer hide was a place at the base of a tree that looked like it had been dug up and recovered recently. We took that as a sign to keep moving.

There were a few different locations that looked like deer beds.

I took a couple of people I know (a botanist and her husband) up to an interesting clearing I found sometime back in Indian River Valley. I was hoping to get some insight into why the place was different and what was growing there. It was a fairly wet trip, but informative for me.

Weather: It was overcast throughout the day with a brief breaks in the clouds in the evening. There was little rain, but the woods were saturated with rain from the previous days. Flowers in the muskegs showed the effects of heavy rain yesterday. There seemed to be little wind at the house or in the valley.

Birds: I heard a new for me variation on the Townsend’s Warbler call on my way down Indian River Road.

On the way to the clearing, there was one sapsucker nest with nestlings. Normally I am used to hearing more than one in the area we covered, so I do not know if it is a low number this year or if that nest just happens to be an early one.

While in the clearing we observed a Red-breasted Sapsucker flying out and catching insects on the wing. I think that’s generally called hawking.

On the way back we seemed to upset a couple of Steller’s Jays. Perhaps they had a nest around. One of them made a call I had never heard before. I did not know what it was until it started making a more typical jay call a few seconds later.

Flora: Plants are blooming pretty well in the muskegs. Three-leaf Goldthread is at or past its peak, cloudberry and bog rosemary, are going strong but perhaps not at the peak. Bog laurel, buckbean, and some sedges have a pretty good start. I also saw bog cranberry, orchids and nagoonberries in the early stages of blooming.

Other Notes: There were a couple of different locations we passed with obvious bear activity. There was a trail that looked like it had been used sometime in the last week or two at the edge of the meadow. On the way back we went up and over a small rise and at the top of the hill was a lot of old bear scat with lots of deer hair. It also looked like the bear had done some scraping/digging.

As a general rule, I do not carry a gun while hiking. I know that bears are around and I have seen them while hiking. Occasionally (it seems like it is about once every year or two around here) there is significant trouble with a bear and a hiker or hunter. I tend to think that most of the time bears want nothing to do with me and they will go out of their way to avoid me. In fact, in my two closest bear encounters, they did just that. In each case, it seemed likely that they were surprised and I did not seem them until they were running away. (My photojournal has more details about the second encounter.) Certainly there is a risk due to bears, but when I think about how many people go out and spend time in bear country around Sitka and how rarely a violent encounter occurs, it seems reasonable to think that the chance of running into trouble with bears is small. Of course, it is also sensible to take reasonable precautions to avoid close encounters in the first place.