On a Lifelong Journey to Learn my Place
Animals
Sabine’s Gull I was lucky to spot the distinctive wings of this juvenile Sabine’s Gull as I happened to be looking out the window of the classroom towards the channel. Sabine’s Gulls have been reported near town before, but they are mostly seen off-shore of Sitka during migration. I only recall one other report (from … Read more
Originally I thought I would have little time to look for the Red Phalaropes today, but it turned out that neither of my afternoon classes would be meeting today, so after lunch Rowan and I headed out to see what we could find. During my morning class I thought I might have seen two phalaropes … Read more
One of the things that stood out to me on my recent visit to Ataku Island was how heavily some of the false azalea (Menziesia ferruginea) was browsed. The first stop we made after leaving the beach was a small clearing at the top of a knoll. It was not entirely evident to me why … Read more
Rowan and I spent some time out looking for birds today. After not seeing anything unusual in the Channel, we went out to Starrigavan. The tide was up pretty high, reaching the full flood while we were there. I checked along the upper part of the estuary and did not find any unusual sparrows. While … Read more
Every so often a crow shows up around town with some pale feathers. It’s fun to try and keep track of where they go, as the feathers make them much easier to identify as an individual. A couple of weeks ago I first noticed this crow with pale feathers at Swan Lake. Since that time … Read more
Even totally motion blurred in flight, a juvenile Sabine’s Gull is not hard to recognize I was looking out the window from class at UAS this afternoon when I saw a very distinctively different looking gull flying out over the Channel. My thought was that it was probably a Sabine’s Gull, so I suggested my … Read more