On a Lifelong Journey to Learn my Place
I’ve been hearing about sea star wasting disease for a year or two, mostly in the context of it devastating some populations along the west coast of Washington, Oregon, and California. However, there has been on-going monitoring for it here. Until the past couple of weeks, there appeared to be only a low level of … Read more
With this past weekend’s full moon (which I only saw briefly through the clouds) we had another nice low tide series. I didn’t end up braving the rain to make it down to the beach, but thought I would share this photo from a low tide at John Brown’s Beach earlier this summer. The Pygmy … Read more
Lion’s Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) seem to be fairly common around Sitka. Sometimes they wash up on shore dead (which is how I usually find them), but this one was fun to watch as it moved up and down through the water column while slowly drifting on the current past Magic Island. This jellyfish can … Read more
Recently the water in Silver Bay has been exceptionally green, almost like it was seeing glacial run-off. I recall this happening last year as well, and at the time I noticed it I wondered if maybe it was dust from all the blasting and rock work being done on Sawmill Creek Road and for the … Read more
We drove out the road today to check on the Swainson’s Thrush nest, but couldn’t see any birds using the nest. There were however many birds active in the brushy area adjacent to the road. Several thrushes were utilizing the ripe elderberries that were abundant on one large bush. In addition there were other smaller … Read more
This morning we went down to the science center for a brief talk followed up by beach walk. The talk focused on possible effects of climate change on intertidal life, highlighting some of the results seen during the speaker’s PhD research in California. The speaker is one of two resident fellows (SIRF) at the science … Read more