Some Context and References

Monilinia species can have a fairly involved life-cycle, including mummified berries in the summer and apothecia (fruiting cups) in the spring. For more details, see this report on M. vaccinii-corymbosi, an economically significant challenge for commercial blueberry growers. We probably have different species of Monilinia in Southeast Alaska, but it seems likely the life-cycle is basically the same.

The fungal host database is a compilation of literature records of fungus/host relationships. In this case, I searched for fungus genus Monilinia with host family Ericaceae (there are Monilinia species which infect plants in other families, but what I’ve observed here makes me primarily interested in those infecting blueberries and other Ericaceous shrubs).

Based on host records from the host database, it looks like the following species would be a starting point for species that could occur in Southeast Alaska:

• M. cassiopes (host: Cassiope tetragona)
• M. ledi (hosts: Rhododendron tomentosum, Vaccinium uliginosum)
• M. megalospora (host: V. uliginosum)
• M. oxycocci (host: V. oxycoccos)
• M. urnula (host: V. vitis-idaea)
• M. vaccinii-corymbosi (several hosts reported among larger shrub blueberries, though none listed which occur in Southeast Alaska)

iNaturalist observations of Monilinia in Alaska

My Observations

I’ve observed two (possibly three) stages of the cycle.

I can’t remember when I first was aware of mummy berries, but I suspect it goes back to my childhood. (My dad probably picked hundreds of gallons of blueberries here from the mid-70s through mid-90s. When I asked, he did remember finding mummy berries. He said some years there were lots of them, other years not many.)

I first found the apothecia stage in mid-June 2009. It was in a muskeg well up Indian River valley. I noticed a small cup on the end of a long slender stalk. My notes with the photo suggest that I looked for a berry at the time but didn’t find one. I don’t remember how I got a name for them. Kitty LaBounty was with me, and may have told me the name at the time.

I next found one in a muskeg on 1 June 2012. This time I pulled apart the Sphagnum to find the berry from which the fruiting cup had grown. Based on the berry’s shape and long stem, I believe the host plant was bog cranberry (V. oxycoccos).

In 2017 I began to an effort to seek them out. In May I documented them in a low elevation muskeg. (I think the same as where I had seen it in 2012.)

Since I had previously seen mummy berries on Harbor Mountain, I made a point of going up there when the gate had opened. I found several which had parasitized V. cespitosum.

I found at least one that appeared to have parasitized copperbush (Elliottia pyroliflora) – though that species was not in the list of hosts of Monilinia spp in the fungal host database.

I found another that wasn’t associated with blueberry (the host fruit did not appear to be a blueberry, and there were no Vaccinium nearby). It may have grown from Harimanella stellariana or Cassiope mertensiana, which were both growing where I found the fungus.

In recent years I have had no trouble finding Monilinia in the spring. For low elevation muskegs, I go looking for them in May. Though I have found one as early as late March (this is the only one I’ve yet found growing on one of the taller blueberries).

I haven’t made as much effort to find them at montane/subalpine elevations. However, based on what I have seen I would look for them there when the snow is still melting. When I’ve found them it’s not been long after snow has departed from a patch of ground (and they don’t always wait for the snow to disappear).

Questions

• Vaccinium cespitosum has apparently not been previously reported as a host (based on fungal host database records). Which species of Monilinia is infecting it?
• Can Monilinia infect copperbush (Elliottia pyroliflora)? If so, is it a new species of Monilinia?
• Cassiope tetragona is listed as a host for M. cassiopes. Can this species infect other Cassiope, in particular C. mertensiana? Can it infect Harrimanella stelleriana?
• M. ledi has been reported to infect Rhododendron tomentosum (which would only occur at the northern margins of Southeast Alaska). Could it also infect the related labrador tea (R. groenlandicum)? In my memory, I found some I thought may have been associated with R. groenlandicum, but if that’s true, I didn’t document them well enough to be sure. (I think it was probably this observation, though.)
• Are both V. ovalifolium and V. alaskaense susceptible to infection? Neither are reported as hosts in the fungal host database, but I’ve found mummy berries on V. ovalifolium. I don’t remember if I’ve seen them on V. alaskaense. I’ve not documented them, if I have.
• I’ve previously noted a leaf blight. It’s reasonably common, but does not seem to significantly impact the health of the blueberry bushes beyond the occasional shoot dying back. The article linked near the top includes under symptoms: “severe wilting of vegetative and floral shoots, followed by a brown discoloration or blight, may occur in some years but not all“. Is the blight we’re seeing here related to that stage of a Monilinia infection?

This idea was conceived late in the season, and is a bit of an experiment for me. Rather than getting a bunch printed (which I might end up stuck with), I opted to go with an on-demand publisher. If you would like to have one and do not live in Sitka, you can order a copy on lulu.com to be shipped to you.

If you live in Sitka and would like to save on the cost of shipping, you can pay for one here. I will order the calendars at one time and can reach out to each person who paid for one to arrange for pickup or delivery when they arrive (which is likely to be mid-January).

If you don’t want to purchase this calendar, but would be interested in something similar next year. Please let me know (leave a comment here, or email me at sitkanature@gmail.com). If there is interest, I’ll try to do something similar next year (and get a much earlier start on it!).

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I’ve long noticed that several kinds of birds stick their head forward when walking. (When I’ve tried to imitate a chicken or pigeon walking I would put my elbows back and stick my head forward before each step.)

What I did not notice until this year was just how steady the head stays as the body catches up. I put together two frames shot in rapid succession as the Black Turnstone was walking. (If the photo above is not already showing the two frame animation, you should be able to click on it, and when the full image is loaded, it will repeatedly shift between to the two frames).

Looking at the aligned frames, it’s easy to see that the planted foot and the bird’s head both are fixed, while the bird’s body slides forward. Something to know the next time you want to do a more careful imitation of a walking bird.

These included three species (and one hybrid combination) I had never observed previously, and one species I previously observed but never photographed. (My photo list is now a Leach’s Storm-petrel shy of my full list).

My Top 10 (+1) Favorite Bird Photos of 2020

I was tempted to include new-to-me species photos in my top 10 (+1) list, but decided to make this list based on the photos that are most compelling to me as photographs. (I have devoted a section of honorable mentions to species added to my photo list in 2020.) The thumbnails below are in calendar order. Click on a thumbnail to see the full photo (you can use left-right arrows to move between photos in each section).

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Honorable Mention – New for the Year

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Snow Bunting

Over the years I’ve been paying attention to birds, Snow Buntings have been reported from the Sitka area several times. Mostly at the airport, but also occasionally at other locations. They seem to prefer habitats we do not have much of in Sitka, but they do occur regularly in the winter. Despite this, I had never seen one, and Snow Bunting was left as the only regularly occurring (non-pelagic) species I had yet to observe in Sitka.

Early 2020 turned out to be an exceptional year for Snow Buntings in Sitka. During he first three months of the year, several people reported sightings. Despite frequent attempts, I had no luck finding any.

As winter turned to spring I began to give up hope of getting to see the last remaining regularly occurring (non-pelagic) species for Sitka which I had never observed. In the first part of April I saw a couple of reports of a Snow Bunting along old airport road and my hopes were rekindled. On a wet, gray day, I finally got my first look and some photos of this previously elusive species.

Brewer’s Blackbird

I noticed the Brewer’s Blackbird at Swan Lake in early May. It did not stay where I found it for long, but turned up again in a couple of different places around town in the following days.

Western Kingbird

On a sunny day in early October, I received a message about a kingbird. I headed out to look for it and try for photos. Familiar with Tropical Kingbird from prior observations, at first glance this one seemed similar, but not quite the same. After getting a chance to look at my initial photos and check the bird books (and ask other more experienced folks), I realized it was a new-to-me Western Kingbird. I was able to get better pictures later in the afternoon. It ultimately was seen in the area for around 10 days and several additional folks subsequently saw it. I looked a few more times (though not as hard as I had the first day), but did not see it again.

Warbling Vireo

I heard a Warbling Vireo on at least two prior occasions (getting a recording one of those), and caught an unidentifiable (to me) glimpse of one Connor had found. A singing bird spent the day near the Mormon Church in early May, and I captured a few photos in those moments when it perched where I could see it. A much more cooperative bird showed up at Castle Hill in late October, continuing the pattern of rare species favoring the maples there.

Honorable Mention – Unusual Sightings

Although these are reasonably nice photos of unusual birds for Sitka (and generally represent improvements on previous pictures), they did not quite make the cut for my favorites of the year.

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Honorable Mention – Portraits

During the year, several birds cooperatively perched near me at least briefly, allowing me to get a portrait. These are my favorite examples.

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Temperatures were near freezing this morning (there was ice on the windshield under a thin layer of snow, and the UAS parking lot was frozen), but the sun had warmed things up a bit by midmorning.

This afternoon I went to UAS to check on something for a student, and then drove out to Silver Bay to look at the snow covered mountains.

It’s been several years since there’s been a blanket of snow this thick.

It occurred to me that it might be interesting to compare a shot I took of Verstovia today with one where there is little snow to see how much has been smoothed out.

I was also struck by how hollow the mountains look compared to some of the photos I’ve seen from the first half of the 1900s. The several feet of snow that’s up there now does a good job of smoothing out the smaller features, but larger ones (like the cross in Cross Mountain) probably require many years of accumulation before they fill out.

Birds are singing more. In the past couple of days there has been a Pacific Wren singing nearby (I think in a neighbor’s yard) as well as the Song Sparrow, Varied Thrushes, and juncos.

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So far I had not had any success, but when I heard from KJ they were out there again late this morning, I didn’t wait too long to head out that way.

I didn’t see them in an initial drive by, but parked at the smaller pullout, and walked towards where they had been seen. I ended up walking to the larger pullout and back without finding them, but did see a couple groups of sea lions near shore and three whales out in the bay.

At my car, I noticed a flock of birds flying along the road away from a car that had driven by. I suspected (correctly, as it turned out) that they were the rosy-finches.

I parked in the gravel area on the upland side of the road and was able to get some nice looks at the finches. They were constantly moving, and quite flighty, so it was difficult to get a good count, but in one photo I was able to count 35 (there may have been a few more).

They were visiting both the gravel along the roadside, the upland-side cliffs, and the riprap slope down to the water.

Prior to this winter, there are only two or three records (of one or two birds) that I know of – each along roadsides. I’ve wondered in the past if they winter at higher elevations in the area, but don’t really know.

They’ve been seen regularly since the end of December, but also seem to be absent much of the time. I’m curious where they go when they’re not along the road.

This morning I noticed the birds making more noise than they have been out in the yard. Part of that was a small flock of Pine Siskins and a Steller’s Jay, but the juncos were also practicing their songs.

Winds were calm while I was out today, and it didn’t rain too much (looks like we’ll end February with about twice as much precipitation as normal for the month). There were rain and graupel showers that moved through this afternoon, but nothing that was too heavy or lasted too long.

I saw a couple of young yellow cedars growing along the Sawmill Creek Roadside between the two turnouts.

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

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Temperatures warmed overnight, and it was raining this morning this morning when I got up.

As I left a little before 9:30 to head down to the harbor, a state DOT worker was shoveling a path along the pile of snow on the side of he road. Without a clear path for water to flow, quite a puddle had developed near the exit to my driveway.

The rain stopped, and temperatures warmed further into the lower 40s during my for hours down at the harbor.

The heavy overcast gradually thinned, and the dim conditions brightened. By the time I was done early this afternoon, the sun was shining through a bit. This was short-lived, as the clouds settled in again later in the afternoon.

I drove out to Silver Bay after my shift ended hoping for rosy-finches, but no luck on that. Road conditions were ever so much better than on Sunday, however.

Driving by Whale Park, there were probably a half dozen Varied Thrushes that flew up from the separated trail just past the parking lot. Bare ground was exposed, and it was under some overhanging trees, so I’m guessing that had something to do with the cluster of birds being there.

The cornices continue to develop on Bear Mountain. To my eyes, they looked bigger today, and I’m starting to get curious about when they might fall.

While I was checking out Bear Mountain, I noticed snow blowing off one of the ridgelines. I do wonder how deep the snow is up there, but will not be checking.

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The forecast called for wind and rain, but that seemed to stay off-shore, as it was no worse than a little breezy during the 8+ hours I was down at the harbor. Skies were overcast early and late in the day, but broke up a bit (at least overhead and towards the mountains) during the middle part of the day.

Later in the day it got up to the mid 40s – Connor commented at lunch that it felt like a spring day. He noted not just the warmth, but also a kind of smell in the air. Over the years I’ve noticed we often get a day or two like this in February that prompts thoughts of an early spring, but the wintry weather almost always returns.

Not long after I arrived at the harbor, I noticed a low clouds just over the trees towards Gavan Hill. I was taking pictures and was surprised to see how fast it dissapeared. Another one towards Verstovia was also fairly short-lived.

The mountains have more snow on them than they have for several years, and I enjoyed watching the filtered sunlight moving across the through broken clouds.

All in, it was a full day for me today – my MMO work at the harbor started at 8:30am, and by the time I got home after my first shift, I only had an hour and a half break before my second 4 hour shift which overlapped with a call that went until 8pm. All of this followed a night of not enough sleep (up late finishing something for work).

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

More photos to come

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Yesterday ended up with over an inch of rain. However, today it let up, and the clouds thinned out a bit as the day went on.

This afternoon I headed out into mostly cloudy skies with patchy sun breaking through.

I got a report of 20+ Pine Grosbeaks over near SEARHC, but wasn’t able to get out right away, and didn’t find them on a couple of drive throughs. Apparently they were favoring the crabapple trees along Seward Drive. (On my first trip, I did see the magpie along the side of the road.)

I needed to go to Sea Mart and made a stop by Sandy Beach while I was out that way. There were several surfers taking advantage of the break with the tide up and a decent swell coming in.

I spent a few minutes taking pictures of the breaking waves before the sun dropped behind a bank of clouds.

After I came out from grocery shopping, I could some color in the clouds and in places on the mountains where the sun had broken through.

More photos to come

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It remained clear overnight and was frosty on the ground this morning. There was some nice feather frost on the car windows, but I didn’t have time to try for good pictures (needing to scrape windows and get to class), so I just grabbed some documentary shots with my phone.

I was a little surprised the sun was only just rising when I went to class, with pink light illuminating only the tallest peaks. As I don’t tend to be an early riser, I guess I pay less attention to progress of daylight gains on the morning side.

Throughout the day, it was mostly clear over town, but clouds hung out to the west.

Usually on sunny days like this (especially when temperatures warm above freezing), the snow sheds off trees, and the mountains look less snow covered (at least the treed part of them) – today was no exception.

This afternoon I went for a walk down to the park. There was interesting cloud formation that looked a little bit like a wavy loop.

My walk was prompted in part by thoughts of catching the sunset behind the lighthouse, but the clouds were too much.

While on my walk, I checked out the Prasiola on the rocks.

In the forest at the park, I noticed a set of tracks in the snow that I think are cat tracks. It was pretty far in, so made me wonder if it’s a feral cat taking up residence in the park, or one that lives in an adjacent neighborhood and has a wider range than I might expect. (How far do cats, domestic or feral, tend to range?)

Coming through the SJ campus, I heard an owl calling in the forest behind Rasmussen.

After yesterday’s report of Pine Grosbeaks along Halibut Point Road, David K. reported 10 of the same today (in ebird, without a very specific location). Brant were also back at Sealing Cove.

Varied Thrush continue to be abundant, I heard and saw many of them, including utilizing the intertidal.

I finished up getting 2016 photos into inaturalist yesterday, and have started working on reviewing 2017 to get any photos I missed into iNaturalist. (Once I’m through 2017, I will be caught up to this year.)

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

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I didn’t get outside for long until this afternoon when I needed to take care of some things at UAS.

There had been a Snow Bunting by Sealing Cove on Saturday, so I brought Rowan with me and had her start looking around while I took care of what I needed to at UAS.

The Snow Bunting didn’t turn up, but we did see a raven with a rat (and a bunch of crows and maybe a couple of other ravens) looking to get a piece of the action. The rat was floppy, but I could not quite tell if it moved a bit during a moment when the raven had dropped it on the ground.

We checked Lazaria Drive and I walked within a couple of feet of the Black-billed Magpie, which didn’t seem at all concerned. I asked where the Snow Bunting was, and the magpie spit up what appeared to be pieces of peanut. I wasn’t sure what to make of that.

I also saw a Northern Flicker, but it flew off before I took a picture.

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

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Today was my second shift of observing – this time I spent most of the time in my car watching from the small Lincoln Street parking lot across from Betty Eliason Childcare Center.

Once again, no mammals. There was some ice in the harbor, but not a lot, especially considering the very cold temperatures. With the full moon tide series (a -3.0 at 8pm tonight, with atmospheric assist of about -1ft), I wonder if maybe the water is getting mixed more, and that makes the surface less likely to freeze.

Harbor ice turned out to not be the only cold question of the day.

While spending 3+ hours watching from my car (I walked the seawalk out to the breakwater during my final 30 minutes) – I had a chance to see a Belted Kingfisher repeatedly moving along the shoreline. It seemed disturbed by pretty much everyone who walked by, flying 50 yards or so further down as they approached, only to take off a minute later when they had closed the gap. It did this in both directions, depending on which way pedestrians were going, periodically making a bigger flight reversing several of its hops, and beginning again.

A couple of times it landed right near where I could see it well, but I was never able to get my camera out before it took off again upon the approach of the pedestrian.

It makes me wonder why it keeps using that shoreline – it seems like there must be other places where it would be less disturbed. I guess they may fly around from perch to perch fairly often anyway, so it’s not a big deal.

I considered going to look for the green flash later in the afternoon, but could see a fair number of clouds off to the west, so decided not to.

I made good progress on making sure 2016-Q2 photos are in iNaturalist, and with similar progress in the coming days, should be on to Q3 by next week.

I noticed the GoogleMaps imagery on iNaturalist is pretty recent for the downtown area of Sitka, and ended up going down a rabbit hole trying to figure out when it was taken. I figured out it was almost certainly a Sunday (based school parking lots empty, and church parking lots with cars), around mid-morning (based on the direction of shadows). It was from 2019, as it appeared the sidewalk near my house had been redone, and the house on the corner of Park and Etolin was torn down. I don’t remember anything specific about the dates of the sidewalk or house demolition other than late summer at the earliest. This is consistent with presence of many gulls at the park, and the color of vegetation in the estuary, as well as on Verstovia (which apperaed to be the same image). So, I figured a Sunday in August or September. The tide at the park seemed to be relatively high, which basically ruled out every other Sunday, and the weather was obviously clear, so that narrowed things down further. In the end, I decided the most plausible days were August 11th or September 15th. Later, I looked at Google Earth (where the imagery date is displayed), and found it was from September 14-15th (hard to get the exact timing, in part due to time zone issues).

Kitty had asked me earlier how cold it was at my house, so I decided to take my thermometer outside and see. The airport weather had 14F, but on my upper deck rail, the thermometer showed 8F, without even taking the cap off. Realizing it was probably colder closer to the ground, I placed it on the snow on a planter (so a couple of feet off the ground), and once it settled, it read 0.8F. This was a bigger difference than I had expected (both from the airport, and from the deck rail), so I decided to try the deck rail again (this time without the cap on). After a few minutes, it seemed to settle on about 7F.

A nearly 7 degree difference over 15 feet or so of height, was more than I would have guessed, so I became curious what temperature it was right at ground level.

I had been going outside with barefeet to this point. It was interesting to feel the melted snow on the bottom of my feet freeze on the exterior door jam, almost like touching my tongue to a cold piece of metal. I decided for further investigations it would be worth wearing shoes.

I chose the compacted snow at the edge of Park Street and was surprised to see the thermometer settle in around 4F. Definitely colder than the deck rail, but not as cold as a couple of feet off the ground.

I put the thermometer on a nearby pile of snow a couple feet off the ground, and got a reading of 0.7F. This seemed strange, so I went back and forth a couple more times between the ground and the snow pile. The ground was consistenly 2-3 degrees warmer than the snow pile (which went to 0.2F a few minutes after the 0.7F reading).

I’m not entirely sure what to make of the temperatures – perhaps there’s enough heat in the ground to make it a little bit warmer?

While I was out, one of the times, I heard a Varied Thrush or two chup that sounded like they may have been spending the night in the large spruce tree between my southern neighbors.

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

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The timing of the clearing was nice for catching a winter sunset with lavender and pink clouds behind the snow covered mountains. I really like experiencing the look and feel of these winter sunsets, though I have yet to find a photo composition that really compells me (the scenery around here is enough that even snapshots look pretty nice, but I feel like there’s a way to convey the feeling even more).

There were some clouds at the horizon, but they were broken, and I figured that a good green flash would probably still be visible. In the end, I got a small hint of green as the sun disappeared, but it seemed more apparent looking through the camera at the time than in photos.

Looking through my photos, I noticed a few shots of the sun shining through gaps in the clouds looked reminiscent of angry faces, so I amused myself by adding dark pupils to enhance the appearance.

A few minutes after the sun had set, I noticed three song birds flying over to Aleutski Island from near the bridge. They seemed no larger than robins – I had the impression of starling size. It’s possible they were thrushes, but I’m guessing they were flying out there to spend the night.

I was a little surprised to see juncos still feeding in the yard when I got home – usually they seem to have all moved through 20 minutes or more before sunset. Perhaps they were pushing daylight to get as much food as they could in preparation for the long cold night. Varied Thrushes were still there as it was getting darker even 5-10 minutes later.

I think the clouds cleared off earlier than forecast, so it will be interesting to see if the low drops below the forecast 16F before morning. As of 11:30pm it was 18F. This is cold enough I need a fire to supplement my heating, or the house will keep getting colder. With highs forecast to be no higher than 20F until next Friday (when it’s forecast to get up to 22F) we could go through a fair amount of wood this coming week.

More photos to come

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Today was my first day observing for the Crescent Harbor project. I had a 4 hour shift that started at 9:30am. The person on before me said it had been about 20F when she started, but it was up to 30F by the time I got there.

I noticed the higher clouds over Baranof Island appeared to me moving NW->SE, though apparently at a lower level the winds were more out of the ESE, based on several eagles soaring in place. There was a shield of clouds over the sound and off shore that varied in position a little bit while I was observing, but eventually came over town later in the afternoon.

Winds were light overall, but seemed a bit out of the southeast earlier, and by early afternoon, a bit out of the north or northeast. Even the light wind definitely made a difference in how easy it was to stay warm.

I saw Song Sparrows several times, including a territorial interaction where one appeared to chase another over a fair distance. It seems like pretty chilly weather to be investing that much in territoriality, but perhaps these intertidal feeding birds are not so impacted by the snow as some others might be. It also may be that the dock removal is displacing some birds, so there would be a bit of adjustment going on.

I saw a lone Bohemian Waxwing along the seawalk finding old mountain ash berries and also eating a snowberry or two.

I’m not sure the Anna’s Hummingbirds will survive (or stay through) the coming cold snap if it’s as cold as forecast. It’s been several years since we had such cold, and in those days it was not unusual for them to disappear at some point during the winter.

This evening when I dropped Rowan off at one end of her paper route (she had been waiting for a package to be delivered at her mom’s and didn’t make it back here until 6pm) I noticed the wind starting to pick up and blow snow off the roof of he national guard armory.

It still wasn’t too breezy when we came home from the Beak, but there is a big blob of precipitation offshore that looks like it’s headed this way.

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

More photos to come

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Snow continued with 14 inches on the rail this morning. Connor told me there were 15 inches in the yard, I think it got deep enough that the rail wasn’t wide enough for the snow to continue accumulating depth as much.

I saw a report that the bluebird was seen at the airport around midday, and I decided to drive over this afternoon (as I needed to stop by UAS, anyway).

I ended up getting stuck in the turnaround area by long term parking. Unfortunately I didn’t have a shovel, so used an ice scraper to scrape down to the pavement repeatedly. With the help of a kind stranger, I was eventually able to get out.

It was good to find out the car can’t handle too much, as the snow wasn’t especially deep, just a bit soft. I think the tires probably were a significant contributing factor (lack of much tread).

I also discovered that if the car has a chance to warm up sufficiently, it’s not a good idea to leave the 12+ inches of snow on the roof. A big chunk slid down my windshield as I was coming down the bridge. Too big for the wipers to clear (earlier small chunks had been dealt with by the wipers with no problem), the bridge is no place to stop and get out of the car if one can help it, especially with snow piled up alongside the road. I rolled down my window and stuck my head out, driving slowly to where I could pull into a parking lot and get the snow moved.

There was some very nice lighting this afternoon (and probably earlier), and of course the deep snow is covering everything. It would have been a nice day to spend a bunch of time out taking pictures (though sometimes it can be tough to decide where to go – especially since conditions aren’t always conducive for getting there).

Forecast for the weekend continues to suggest the coldest weather we’ve seen since 2012 (that’s the last time we saw a daily high stay below 20F). It looks like it may be the second longest streak, with a nearly decade long stretch from late 1995 through early 2004, being the longest on record.

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There were occasional (mostly light) snow showers during the day, but some extensive stretches of sunshine, as well.

Winds were mercifully calm during my time outside this afternoon, and the low angle sun felt nicely warm when I was facing it.

I had a call that took up much of the morning, but after lunch I took a second call while out at the airport.

I spent a bit of time standing on the weedy berm near the fence, but did not see any sign of the bluebird (which Connor had seen yesterday briefly).

I did enjoy the look of the snow being blown off the runway – the bright white against darker gray background, and the way the smaller particles swirled off.

I later walked over to Lazaria Drive and was able to see the American Tree Sparrow, among other birds (though I didn’t see a Lincoln’s Sparrow which had been there earlier).

Unlike previous days, Pine Siskins seemed to be in short supply. I’m not sure if they have started to move on, or if I just didn’t happen to cross paths with them today. (A couple of days ago, the Parkers found a Common Redpoll in one of the flocks – so I’ll try to keep my eyes open for them, if/when I run into any siskin flocks).

With the tree sparrow found, I’m now down to the bluebird, Red-winged Blackbirds reported at Starrigavan on Sunday, and a couple of probable Redheads reported at Totem Park today. (Snow Buntings would be a nice bonus, if they’re still around.)

2016 observations are going smoothly so far. Even though more of the observations are in iNaturalist, I think 2017 will end up being a bigger hassle due to the much larger number of observations I made that year.

Temperatures later in the week are forecast to get down into the teens. It should easily be the coldest weather of the winter so far. If the cold persists for a few days, I may try heading up Indian River to see what’s frozen.

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

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Karen J. saw a couple of Snow Buntings over at the airport mid-morning, and although I was on a call for work, I took advantage of mobile technology and went over there with Connor.

Unfortunately, the Snow Buntings had moved, and we did not find them, though I did see a magpie, and Connor saw the bluebird and a Swamp Sparrow.

Also unexpected were 2 or 3 Savannah Sparrows near long-term parking which I saw again later in the afternoon when they were taking advantage of snow-free areas underneath vehicles in the lot.

As the sun was setting, the thin overcast which had been over town throughout the day started to thin, and I could see the half moon. Perhaps not coincidentally, I started feeling a chilling wind out of the W or NW. I suspect it was much stronger higher up, as it looked like snow was blowing off osme of the mountain peaks.

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

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It snowed a little last night, but not as much as had been forecast as a possibility. The forecast did mention the amounts could vary significantly depending on the path individual snow showers took, and it appeared none of the heavier snow showers hit town overnight.

We spent a good chunk of the morning eating breakfast and seeing my parents off at the airport.

A brief snow shower moved over from the south while we were at the Nugget and made for some nice light as it continued on and the sun started to shine through.

After the airport we drove to Sawmill Cove to see if the Thick-billed Murre might be in view.

Unfortunately, no murre, but the snow on the mountains was nice to see as the clouds were breaking up a bit. Connor mentioned patterns in the snow on Bear Mountain, so on the way back towards town, I stopped at a pullout to take a look (I think it was wind sculpting, but I’m not sure).

I had some errands to take care of, and between those spent some time looking for the Canvasback on Swan Lake (no luck, but there was a Northern Shoveler, and 20+ Ring-necked Ducks, among other things), and went for a short walk on Japonski Island. I didn’t see either the bluebird or the magpie again.

I have heard the magpie(s) has started venturing across the channel, so it may be more difficult to find one now.

Snow seems to have pushed Pine Siskins down more – they are still in the trees, but there are more of them also feeding on the ground.

This afternoon I went out for the sunset again – this time trying to take pictures of waves catching the low angle sunlight. The tide was lower than seems optimal, but waves were breaking. I checked out Sandy Beach, but due to the position of a cloud (which the sun ultimately disappeared behind), Pioneer Park seemed like a better bet.

I feel like I’m still getting the hang of catching waves that give the best chance of getting a photo I like. Some of it is technical (it would probably be better to work with shutter priority – I usually use aperture priority). Some of it is just getting better at seeing how the waves are developing, and how they will catch the light. A downside of Pioneer Park today was the bigger rocks that were sticking out of the water. Maybe with a little more practice I could incorporate them into a composition that worked. However, that’s made trickier by the movement and variability of the waves).

A half moon was out this afternoon, and late this evening was up high enough for me to see it pointing down towards the horizon above my neighbor’s house. This makes me wonder – I’m not sure I’ve seen a moon in this phase set at this time of year – I tend to think of the moon setting with the dividing light between light and dark somewhat close to vertical, but now I wonder if that’s actually true. Is it consitent for a given phase of the moon, or does season also matter?

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

More photos to come

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I recognized the peaks, and knew roughly where the photo was taken. I could also tell from the lack of snow (plus a little bit of termination dust on the highest peaks) that the photo was taken in the fall. The light and shadows told me it was taken in the morning.

Merrill died in 1929, so his photo must have been taken at least 90 years ago, and if my understanding of the timing of his arrival is correct could have been taken as far back as 120 years ago. Perhaps someone has done work to get years on his photos, but if so, I am not aware of it.

I was able to get to the location where the photo was taken today.

Though it was a bit earlier in the season (and later in the day) than the original was taken, and of course the trees had changed a bit, I did my best to line things up so I was taking photos from the same place in the clearing as Merrill did, and used photoshop to get the photos as closely aligned as I could.

Of course the mountains look mostly the same, though even with the termination dust obscuring things a bit, it’s clear there is much more snow on the furthest back peak in the middle of the frame.

The biggest differences I noticed were the tree framing the right side of Merrill’s photo had died quite some time back, while a tree which I think is present in the original as a small shrub is now 15-20 feet tall.

The tree framing the left side is still alive, though I think the branches have lengthened and are hanging down further.

A prominent tree in the foreground meadow is still there, though not looking especially healthy.

Merrill’s photo was hand tinted, so that plus the reflections in the glass make it more detailed comparison difficult. I don’t know if it will be possible for me to get a better version of the original photo (in particular, without the reflections in the glass). I did not find it among the plates scanned and with digital image files available through Sitka National Historical Park (though I did find a couple that were taken not far away at different times – which I will probably also try to retake). If I can get a better version of the original, I’ll try to update this comparison.

After recent rains, it was nice to see some blue sky this morning. The clouds put up a fight throughout the day, with occasional sprinkles from some of the bigger clouds, but overall the trend was towards clearing.

It was chilly this morning, and snow had fallen down to 3000 feet or below on the mountains – though not much of it.

This evening I went out a bit before sunset and looked around Pioneer Park to see if the shooting stars were blooming. Although reasonably common in the area, this is (so far) the only place I know of where they can be found along the road system. There were a couple of plants blooming, but I expect there will be more in the coming days/weeks.

Spring is progressing – over the past week or two, the leaves on the alders have started to fill out. Still not to peak green, but it’s getting closer.

Yesterday a deer went through the yard and ate on one of the crabapples at least. If the trees were larger, I don’t think I would mind, but a deer can just about completely defoliate the dwarf trees in a visit or two.

My iNaturalist Observations for Today

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No new photos from today, though had I not been already pushing my timing this morning on the way to class, I would have stopped to take pictures of some of the intricate wisps of clouds/lingering fog that were settled in against some of the mountains. I have often wondered how such delicate looking formations can occur. I understand what I see is condensed water droplets, but I don’t really understand why/how the fog pockets form in one spot, but not someplace else very nearby, or perhaps even more mysterious to me is how the tendrils persist and seem to move around. Unlike with smoke, it’s easy enough for the condensed water in a cloud to re-vaporize and become invisible. It would be interesting to learn more about how all of this works.

Although the forecast was for mostly sunny skies today, it ended up being cloudier than that. There was a fair amount of sunshine in the morning (along with plenty of clouds), but by mid-afternoon the clouds were staring to move in, and this evening it got to be overcast. No rain, however.

A busy day with work, so I spent little time outside. I did do a little reading out on the deck while the sun was between clouds. I also was able to pick a few strawberries that continue to ripen – they’re not quite as big, sweet, and juicy as they were at their peak, but it’s still nice to enjoy a berry or two once in a while from the ever bearing plants.

After no success yesterday when I tried to get a photo of the new snow on Bear Mountain (which I had seen reported on Facebook), I made another attempt today. Conditions were more variable, with large squalls moving through bringing heavy rain, but the sun also shown occasionally. Unfortunately, it was difficult to predict when the clouds would move off a mountain, and for the most part I did not guess well. I made a morning trip out to Silver Bay and found Bear Mountain obscured, but saw Clarence Kramer Peak showing a nice bit of new snow. Unfortunately, by the time I made it back to where I could park and walk down the trail to get a picture, the clouds had moved in again. I was interested to see the thin white ribbons of cascades pouring down the upper slopes of Bear Mountain (on the Medvejie side).

This afternoon I walked downtown with Connor and Rowan to do some errands and saw Bear Mountain was clear. I grabbed a shot of it as well as what was showing of the unnamed 4900+ peak behind the Sisters. By the time we were done with our errands, the clouds had moved back over, so I was glad to capture what I did.

I can’t remember seeing termination dust on the peaks quite so early before. My recollection is that I’ve usually noticed the first snow on the mountains around the last week of September, and that is usually still not much lower than 4000 feet. The snow level had risen today – I would guess it was may around 3900 feet or so. The photos I saw yesterday seemed to have snow down closer to 3500 feet, and maybe a little less. Given the strong El Nino, it’s been my impression that we could expect a relatively warm fall and winter, so it was interesting to have snow appear so early. I guess last winter was so anomalously warm that perhaps this ‘warmer than normal’ El Nino year will still be a more typical winter than we had last year.

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A few years ago I started watching the Biorka Island radar for signs of migration (my first post on the subject from back in 2009), and although I’ve not gone through and made careful notes, my sense of things is that we’re into a period of peak migration (that shows up on the radar, anyway) which will last into September, at least. Fall weather being what it is, it’s often not possible to see through all the rain showing up on the radar whether or not migration is occurring on those nights when conditions are not free of precipitation. This evening I decided to check the radar and found a clear contrast to what showed up late last week, a difference I think probably has everything to do with the weather.

Late last week a high pressure ridge formed over Southeast Alaska, so we had clear skies with (around Sitka, anyway) sea breezes kicking up during the day, but dying down at night. During the evening of the 13th, when the radar image that leads this post was captured, conditions at the airport were calm. Today we saw low clouds with intermittent rain and fairly light winds, though mostly out of the south or southeast. This evening at the time the radar image below was captured, winds were out of the southeast at 4-5 mph. We are forecast to get a heavy dose of rain in the next 24-36 hours (starting more in the north), and it is probably the leading edge of that which shows up in the upper part of the radar image.

What is striking to me is the absence of any southbound birds (green means movement is towards radar, red indicates movement away). Winds don’t seem strong enough to make a big difference in whether birds would choose to fly. The rain is not falling here yet, and it seems plausible birds could take off and stay ahead of it (or maybe head down again if the rain catches them and they don’t want to fly through it). I wonder if the heavy/low clouds are part of what is keeping them down, or perhaps they can sense the coming storm and are opting to hang low until it passes.

As usual, I feel like I have more questions than answers, but it’s fun to speculate and perhaps over time I’ll gradually get some insight into at least some of these questions.

On a related note, this is a good time of year to go outside during the hours after sunset and listen for night flight calls of migrating birds. When I stepped out to watch for some late perseids during the tail end of last week’s meteor shower, I heard several birds calling as they flew over. It made me want to getting my recording setup going again and see what I could capture, though living along the main road makes that seem a bit less optimal (though traffic noise is only intermittent throughout the night). In contrast, when I listened for a brief time this evening, I didn’t hear any migrants (though I did hear a screech owl calling from somewhere in the neighborhood, and also felt surprisingly warm, no doubt due to it being 59F with 100% humidity and a dew point of 59F, near the 60F dewpoint line where the mugginess gets increasingly uncomfortable)

There was a note posted on the Sitka Birds Facebook group with pictures of a Franklin’s Gull that had been in the channel. I was able to find the gull just off the ramp at UAS and get some pictures. It stayed there fairly close to shore for 45 minutes or so, but just before I had to leave it flew across and further up the channel. This is only the second Franklin’s Gull reported from Sitka, with the first seen (and photographed) on the beach near the mouth of Indian River on 30 April 2007. This is only the third report for the Sitka road system. Prior reports include a ‘probable’ Franklin’s Gull on 29 October 1988 (M. Ward, M. Tedin), and then on 30 April 2007 an adult was photographed on the flats at Totem Park.

Thanks to J. Drake for the finding and promptly posting about this bird!

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Weather today was sunny with temperatures in the lower 50s (high of 55F). The sun made it feel like it was warm, but there was a cool breeze throughout much of the day that I suspect kept the actual air temperatures moderated.

This morning started with partly cloudy skies and some sunshine. Winds were calm, and it was quite pleasant out. By mid morning it was a rough overcast, though the cloud layer was thin enough it hurt my eyes to look in the direction of the sun as I tried to spot a flock of geese I was hearing. Around noon the clouds were thicker, and heavy gray rain-bearing clouds were clearly approaching from the south. The remainder of the day was off and on rain, though I never noticed it get heavy here in town.

After yesterday’s comment on the so-far slow shorebird migration, I noticed that I said the same thing last year around this time. Today I didn’t see a lot of shorebirds, but there were three Black-bellied Plovers down at the park. I first saw them when a couple of people flushed them (unintentionally, as far as I could tell) from where they were on the beach. The three plovers and a much smaller Dunlin didn’t fly far, and when I went a little closer (to verify that it was a Dunlin, as it had settled down into the rocks a bit and had its billed tucked under a wing), they seemed disinclined to move. I am guessing they had just flown in. I did hear a nuthatch again, this time closer to the visitor center in the taller coniferous forest, but it didn’t call for long.

There was a golden plover repeated at Eagle Way Beach later in the day, the first of those I’ve heard about this year.

Connor did pretty well fishing for dolly varden today. He caught 21 this afternoon (keeping 10, including one that was 21 inches).

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