Inspired by one of the shares on this morning’s call as well as last week’s exercise, I asked the kids to come up with the rules for playing “The Owl Game”. They/we came up with a hide-and-seek type of game where the Owl (seeker) looks for prey (hiders). Since owls hunt by sound, the prey must make little noises (perhaps rustling paper). We didn’t flesh out all the details, but thought it should take place in the dark, and perhaps blindfolded (though the latter might be for more advanced play). We’ve not had a chance to try it yet, but I’m sure we will.

This week’s assignment is to start getting to know some neighborhood birds, preferably ground feeders. I have already been trying to pay more attention to the Song Sparrow(s) that seem to spend a fair amount of time along either side of the fence line south of the house (see photo below from early January). Dark-eyed Juncos are pretty frequent visitors to the yard as well. In the past I’ve heard Winter Wrens, but not lately, and I’m not sure whether that’s because they are being quiet or if there are not any around the yard currently. One of the questions we were asked to consider is where the birds sleep. Not sure if I will be able to figure that out or not as I’m pretty sure the juncos don’t sleep in the yard (I routinely see them flying north/northeast in the late afternoon), however my guess is the Song Sparrow does sleep somewhere close.

It was another wet day, though less breezy than yesterday.

This afternoon just after 3, I noticed the juncos gathering in the branches of the trees east of the house. Several times this winter I have noticed juncos moving through those trees around this time (relative to sunset, rather than hour of the day). Each time they have come from the neighborhood to the south and east, moved through the trees in the yard, and from their continuing northeast across the road toward the Geodetic Way. A couple of times in the morning I have seen them reversing that route, but I’m less often paying attention out the windows at that time.

When I first noticed them today, I decided to go outside and watch. They seemed to stay in the trees longer than I remember noticing before. I’m not sure if the flock was more spread out, and the early arrivals were waiting for the rest to catch up. It’s also possible this was fairly typical, and I’ve just not noticed before.

While I was out there, an Anna’s Hummingbird flew up and then backed off when it realized I was there. It was a different individual than showed up a couple of days ago. The other one appeared to be an immature male, while this one seemed to be an adult. I came inside to give it space and grab my camera when I saw it. There wasn’t really much light remaining so conditions weren’t ideal, but I took a couple of pictures as it was feeding anyway.

One of the ideas that I especially like, and hope can happen sometime in the not too distant future is to do some study of Dark-eyed Juncos. Juncos are one of the most common winter birds here. In most years they’re easily the most common small songbird. Of the non-seabirds, it’s possible gulls and maybe crows or ravens can compete with them numbers-wise. In irruption years the siskins and crossbills are probably more numerous.

Starting in mid-to-late fall, they gather up in flocks and move around through the different neighborhoods, visiting feeders and such. I think they’re present outside of town also, but they are much less abundant there. There are several questions I think are of potential interest, that I think could be answered by doing some initial banding followed by reports from people in the community, especially those with feeders.

Some of the questions I am curious about:
How much do the junco flocks mix over the course of a winter?
How large an area does a given flock tend to cover, and is it the same area from day to day?
Where do the juncos go in summer? (more difficult to answer, probably)
Do the same birds come back to the same flocks and/or neighborhoods from year to year?

I have started a page for this project idea where more information will be added if/when this project moves forward.

There was a chance that frisbee might be played this morning at Moller Park, so the kids and I walked up the west side of Swan Lake to check it out. I figured in the likely scenario that frisbee was not happening, we could at least get some birding in – see if there was anything of particular interest as we head in to count week for the Christmas Bird Count this Sunday. As it turned out, there were a couple people playing catch, so we joined them for a bit, before continuing on.

Rowan was surprisingly interested in birding today, while Connor was much less so. Usually it’s the other way around. Rowan had played on the playground for part of the time Connor and I were playing catch and she opted to go with me along the Path of Hope while Connor decided to play on the playground for a while. I sent her off into the lower brushy area to see if there were any sparrows or thrushes lurking about. She ended up coming up through a (very) minor unofficial trail to try and sneak up on me while I was at the overlook checking out what was on Swan Lake (and there wasn’t much I could see). She wanted to return the way she came, so I went over to the parking for the path of hope – noticing mostly juncos and a few Pine Siskins in the parking lot and at the feeder across the street (earlier Rowan heard then we saw a couple of small flocks flying over – perhaps 30+ birds in all).

Walking down the road, Connor came out to meet me, but Rowan still hadn’t found her way out of the forested area. While waiting for her, Connor and I spotted a Downy Woodpecker – a bird I’ve only seen a handful of times around here over the years. I sent Connor to find Rowan so she could see it also, while I tried to take some pictures. The photos didn’t turn out that great, but fortunately it stuck around long enough for Rowan to get a look at it.

Rowan had found a bird skeleton in the bushes along the ‘trail’ she had been on. She picked up the skull and wanted to pick up some of the other bones, but it sounded like after looking away to get a stick to use, she couldn’t find where the remainder of the skeleton was. She thought the skull might be a sparrow, but I suggested a warbler was more likely, since there were still yellow feathers associated with it. Also, the bill looked better for a warbler, though she and I didn’t talk about that at the time. She carried the skull all the way home so we could keep it. At the time she was talking about trying to figure out what it was by looking in the bird book, but by the time we got home, I think she just wanted to eat lunch, and then forgot about that project.

Rather than retrace our steps, we continued around on Cascade Street, then down Lake Street. Connor decided to head on home to start lunch warming up, while Rowan and I stopped to check out the birds on Swan Lake. I was able to count 15+ Ring-necked Ducks, as well as some scaups and mallards near the radio station. At the peninsula there was the lone Trumpeter Swan, many more Mallards and a few gulls, including the first year Glaucous Gull.

Rowan noticed all the tracks in the snow at the peninsula and said she thought the swan had been walking around a bunch. I’m not sure what made her think they were swan tracks instead of gulls and mallards, but she realized the difference when a couple people came and spread some corn out for the birds. The swan walked over to get some, and then Rowan was able to check out the tracks where she had seen the swan walking. We were both impressed with the size.

Overall it was a quiet day – a bit of wind, but not too much, bird activity seemed pretty low, and there wasn’t a lot of precipitation. What did fall was kind of a heavy wet snow, but there wasn’t enough to add any depth to the thin ground covering that we got overnight.

[Show slideshow]

This Downy Woodpecker foraging on trees near Moller Park.

Rowan found this bird skull (probably a warbler) in brush near the Path of Hope.

Rowan found this bird skull (probably a warbler) in brush near the Path of Hope.

Two Glaucous-winged Gulls and a Glaucous Gull at Swan Lake.

Trumpeter Swan tracks in the snow at Swan Lake.

Trumpeter Swan tracks in the snow at Swan Lake.

Went for an early (for me) morning walk to Swan Lake. Was interested to notice a fledgling Dark-eyed Junco already out and about.

[Show slideshow]

Fledgling Dark-eyed Junco

European Starling gathering nesting material at Swan Lake

Backside of an American Wigeon.

Time of sit: 1:30-2:30pm

It was a pleasant afternoon with partly cloudy skies and a light irregular breeze. I ended up spending an hour out in the backyard soaking up the sun while listening to the neighborhood goings-on and watching a couple of juncos and a spider.

At first I relaxed against the base of a Sitka Spruce tree. Almost laying down flat, I closed my eyes to the sun in my face and listened to the birds while enjoying the warmth of the sun on my skin. The irregular puffs of wind were almost too cool for comfort, but they were infrequent enough that the warming of the sun more than made for it.

The surface of the duff where I reclined was reasonably dry, due in large part to the drying effect of the mid-day sun. Not far below there was still significant moisture left from recent rains, though fortunately not enough to soak up into my clothes significantly. In my line of site, I noticed quite a few strands of traveling silk connecting various branches, shrubs, and the ground. I guess it is a time of year for spiders to be on the move again, looking for mates and/or suitable habitat for capturing prey and growing to maturity.

Unlike the first day, I heard many birds scattered throughout the neighborhood. Of particular note were a couple of male Dark-eyed Juncos that seem to be what remains of the winter junco flock. The first junco I noticed came toward me from the southeast, foraging its way on the ground through the still-leafless salmonberry canes. It got within 8-10 feet of me and seemed largely unconcerned as it passed in and out of sight moving through the bushes and little hummocks on the uneven moss and leaf covered ground. A loud noise not far behind me to the north caused me to sit up and look, and the junco subsequently flew further away. Not long after I decided to get up and go in (it was probably about 30 minutes since I started at this point).

As I was walking out, I had only moved a few paces when I noticed the junco coming back in my direction. I stood still and watched it, and once again it came with in 10 feet or less of where I was standing. I decided to sit on the moss at this location and observe the junco(s) for a while longer. I noticed he would periodically fly over to an elderberry bush and sing a few notes of his trilling song before returning to foraging. It was also during this time that I noticed a second junco. I thought originally it might be a female, but once I got a better look, saw that it was a male. I wonder now whether these were males hatched last year, and so perhaps are not quite with the program as far as breeding activity is concerned (which might explain their still hanging around the neighborhood and the fairly weak singing). This pair of males seemed to be keeping track of each other hanging loosely together; I’m pretty sure I heard contact calls from at least one of the birds – but they mostly seemed to stay a fair distance apart.

At one point when the juncos had moved off far enough that I was not sure where they were, I noticed a spider crawling along the ground near me. I turned to look at it, and it quickly hid itself under some of the needles and mosses on the ground. From what I could see of it, I think it was a Hackledmesh weaver (Callobius pictus), a species that seems to be fairly common in this house. I can’t really be sure, however, as I suspect there are other similar looking species around.

I also noticed a very small spider climbing up a silk to the needls of a Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) sapling, but it was so small I did not try to investigate it much closer. I just noted that it almost appeared to be taking in the silk line it was on. I wondered whether it could it its silk and thereby retrieve some of the resources used to make it in the first place, or if it was doing some sort of web repair, and it just looked like it was taking up the strand, but really was doing something else.

I stopped one more time on my way back to the house – this time sitting on an old alder log after I noticed a sparrow foraging in the shade of the house. I never did get a great look at it, but I suspect it was a Fox Sparrow – if not that, then probably a Song Sparrow. While I was sitting here, I noticed the smell of fresh green plants (or at least that’s what I associate the smell with – I imagine there only some plants that actually smell that way). It’s been a slow spring so far, but the plants have started to put out new growth.

One of the last things I observed before finally leaving for good was the departure of the two juncos I had been watching. One of them flew south over the neighboring house, but the other did not follow immediately. Given that they had been loosely associated I wondered if the second would ultimately follow the first. After a short time (less than a minute, I think), the second did fly off, but more towards the southwest, where it went between the house where I live and the neighboring one.

This March has seemed quite dry, with cold temperatures early on and warming later in the month (though still freezing at night). Looking back at the March 2011 weather record for the Sitka Airport, it looks like the cold weather was mostly in February, with only a day or two of particularly frigid conditions. It has been exceptionally dry, however. Rain is falling now and nearly 1/3 of an inch has accumulated in the 3 hours since midnight, but even so – only 1.17 inches has fallen so far (including so far today) and it’s highly unlikely another 4.5 inches will fall in the next 45 hours to bring the total up the the 5.78 inch long-term monthly average. Lack of rain along with relatively cool temperatures have resulted in low levels at both hydro facilities, so the city as asked citizens to reduce power consumption to avoid running the large diesel generators used to supplement power when necessary. Hopefully the current rains help alleviate that problem somewhat.

It seems like many things are running a little late this year as compared to the recent past. I have not seen any wild flowers blooming, but with the recent warmer temperatures and sun, I expect to find blueberries or salmonberries in flower any day. Insects have started showing up – I saw a Snow Sedge (Psychoglypha sp) flying around within the last couple of days. There have also been other flies I do not yet know how to identify.

Herring are starting to mature, and it’s likely the first opening will happen today or tomorrow, at least a week after last year’s. Perhaps they have been waiting for ‘herring weather’ – the mix of snow/rain/sleet/hail/sun/wind changing every 5 minutes that seems to often mark the herring spawn. Until this point it’s been mild with partly to mostly cloudy skies, relatively light winds and little precipitation of any form. The forecast indicates wind, rain, and possibly snow in the forecast through the end of the week. In any case, there are many whales, sea lions, seals, eagles, gulls, and other birds cruising the near shore waters looking for herring schools to feast on. It’s a fun time to be out near the water watching the activity – Connor said a whale even came up close to Sage Rock this morning.

On the bird front – Song Sparrows have started singing in earnest. I was out at 5:30am last week and was surprised to hear so many singing around town well before sunrise. Migrants so far consist of gulls and robins. It would be interesting to know where all the robins that have showed up recently spent the winter, but it certainly seems like more are around in the last week or so, so I believe they have come from somewhere south. I think Dark-eyed Juncos have started to disperse, as I’m not seeing flocks of them as commonly around the neighborhood.

Most active were the Pine Siskins – they were chattering from the trees to my east and southeast. They’re fairly aggressive and noisy at most times, but they seem to be spreading out a bit – perhaps they’re starting to separate into breeding pairs. The juncos were also chittering amongst themselves, with an occasional trilled abbreviated song thrown in. They were also mostly to my east and southeast, though lower down in the trees. I saw them flying over the house to south of me as well. Chestnut-backed Chickadees were regular, but less frequently calling, I’m not sure if they were just passing back and forth, actively feeding, or something else. A couple of times down the hill a little further off to the east, I heard a Winter Wren singing. Varied Thrushes gave a few short-quiet buzzing-calls, though mostly they were quiet (I did see one fly up to an upper tree branch when I started walking back to the house).

There were ravens calling in the further distance, and also at least one raven (possibly more) flying over the area repeatedly (though not in any pattern I noticed) making a call I find reminiscent of a shorebird. It’s kind of a rapid “tu-tu-tu-tu” or something like that. I’ve heard them make it in the past, though right now I can’t remember if it was only in the spring time or not. I did see a second raven carrying what appeared to be nesting material yesterday – so I’m curious if the call is something related to courtship/breeding.

When I first sat down at the tree I didn’t notice any sapsucker wells. This seemed odd, since the warmth of this location seemed like a good prospect to induce sap flow. It did not take much specific looking to find several wells tapped in the tree – most of them closer to the base, almost even into where the duff was covering the start of the roots. Most of the wells looked pretty dry, but I did notice more than one with small beads of sap starting to form.

At one point during my sit, I heard a squirrel alarm from the trees ESE of me, then some scurrying in the brush and leaves a short distance directly to my east. I looked over and startled a squirrel that had come down from the trees and started toward me along the ground. It jumped back to the nearest tree, climbed up to get a better look at me and then proceeded to take a detour, jumping from branch to branch and crawling along above my head. A short time a later, a second squirrel did the same thing, though this one took some time to check me out further from the trunk directly above my head. It came towards me head-first, then backed up, shifted a little bit to the side, seemingly trying to figure out who/what I was. After a few moments, it must have decided I was no longer interesting, as it returned to its former quest of chasing the first squirrel (or so it seemed to me). A few minutes later they both came running back toward the direction they had come from, with one in close pursuit of the other.

A substantial bit of melting occurred with ice on the ground through the day, but as soon as the sun was down near the horizon, it started to freeze up and become quite slippery. I actually found it kind of fun to slide down/along icy patches, but it can be treacherous.

Walking down along the harbor about 45 minutes after sunset, I enjoyed the thumbnail crescent of the moon with a bright Jupiter (I think) nearby. The lingering colors of the sunset were reflected in the harbor’s calm waters along with the harbor lights now starting to turn on. I noticed the silhouette of a Great Blue Heron standing at the water’s edge – as we approached, it’s head smoothly turned so it could keep an eye on us; suddenly twisting rapidly to look with the other eye when we had walked past it. I stopped briefly to look at it and see if it would fly off, but apparently that was not enough of a break from accepted human behavior to make it decide to move locations.

Rainfall was continuous today, though the intensity varied from moderate to heavy. All told, over an inch of it was recorded at the airport recording station. No doubt more fell in some of the wetter areas of town. Temperatures dropped slightly, falling into the upper 30s after spending the past several days in the 40s. The forecast is for continued cooling, with snow mixing in and then predominating over the next couple of days. As a result of today’s slightly cooler temperatures, the snow level dropped to the point where the top of Gavan Hill had snow covered trees. During my walking I only noticed a south wind blowing while I was down near the harbor. For some reason it didn’t seem to have much staying power across the land – at least not at ground level. The wind blown precipitation (snow at higher levels and rain lower, I imagine) or wispy clouds were being pushed along the slopes of Gavan Hill suggested there was plenty of action higher up, however.

My outside time today consisted primarily of a bit of walking around to visit the new house, downtown, and then over to Marge and Tedin’s to get the bird observations from last week. Swan Lake is still mostly iced over, though the open water is increasing in area. I saw 5 or more Ring-necked Ducks on the lake today – up a couple from previously. I also noticed 3 or 4 American Wigeons in open water toward the upper end of the lake. I took a short cut across the sedgy area at the very upper end of the lake flushing 8 Mallards who took off at my intrusion near their hangout. As they flew I was a little surprised to see a Pacific Wren pop out of a clump of last year’s sedges. Oddly silent (I would have expected some alarm chips at least), it landed in a nearby alder branch to take a size me up before flying on. It seemed a strange habitat for wrens – I’m much more used to seeing them in brushy and/or forested areas. While at Marge and Tedin’s, I was able to get some decent looks at the White-throated Sparrow that’s been splitting time between there and the feeders near Moller Park this winter. Would be nice to get more pictures of this species, but today wasn’t so great for that.

Of course there were many other bird sightings today, but the highlight of my day was probably the 10-15 (or more) Varied Thrushes with an equal number of Dark-eyed Juncos I watched for a few moments out my back window as they foraged in the backyard. I was standing up and getting things together to go when motion caught my eyes. I looked out back and didn’t see much, until I caught another little movement and saw a Varied Thrush hopping about. It didn’t take long to realize there were quite a view thrushes and juncos back there, and I was fascinated by how well they all blended in. The effect it created was that chunks of the ground itself were shifting about.

It’s easy to understand how juncos can blend in with their drab browns, grays, and blacks, but Varied Thrushes have such bright oranges that seem so boldly contrasted with the darker grays and blacks it seems like they should stand out. Instead, even when I was watching the bird as it stopped moving, it almost seemed to disappear against the background. With the whole backyard covered by a loose flock of these birds it was somewhat disconcerting to catch the movement in my peripheral vision only to see what at first glance appeared to be just the ground and ground cover. Only when the bird standing there moved again did it become obvious that it was there. The overall effect of the 20-30 birds scattered in the yard was a little unsettling since the ground isn’t supposed to move like that.

Temperatures warmed during the night from the middle 30s up to 41F and then stayed around 40 throughout the day. The higher temperatures made a big difference to the amount of snow on the ground – a fact I first noticed when I saw a dozen or more Dark-eyed Juncos scattered throughout the mostly bare backyard foraging. I am not sure what they were finding, but I suspect many were finding seeds released during the cold dry weather and then subsequently covered by snow.

Clouds were mostly quite thick through the day, though around noon there were some thin spots that made it almost seem as if the sun would break through. By the time I walked over to check on house progress, the ceiling was below 1000 feet. The air was calm and I could smell wood smoke that seemed to have been pressed back down to earth by the humid air.

After seeing the house progress, the kids and scared up a couple of pigeons from a Oja St. yard. Connor said he had seen a dove take off with them, and we were able to see where it had perched on a wire a few houses away. It seemed likely to be a Eurasian Collared-Dove, a fact which we were able to confirm when it started calling. Among the other typical neighborhood birds was also an American Robin and a Steller’s Jay (the latter of which I only heard, but did not see).

We were running late by the time we got the bridge, so I only paused briefly to scan the birds in the Channel. The Long-tailed Ducks were almost all gathered together in a flock of over 70 birds not far from the Fuel Dock – quite a bit closer than I’m used to seeing them. I’m not sure if they coordinate their diving on purpose to optimize foraging efficiency underwater, but there dives were synchronized today – behavior I’ve seen on other occasions as well. There was also a pretty good group of scaups swimming toward the middle of the Channel from near the Coast Guard dock.

Walking quickly by the new wind turbine adjacent to the Coast Guard cutter station, I was interested to see it spinning slowly from a wind out of the south that I couldn’t feel at ground level.

On the way home this evening, I decided to walk barefoot from Crescent Harbor. The campus lawn was pretty much free of snow, but I could feel the ground was frozen just below the surface.

Trumpeter Swan: At first I was not even sure this was an animal call. After a couple of listens I realized it sounded like a swan, and a quick check of the Birds of Alaska CD confirmed it. Download Trumpeter Swan

Hairy Woodpecker: I am not absolutely sure about this call, but I’m confident that it’s a woodpecker. Although it seems clear the woodpecker must be flying from left to right, the wingbeats that are heard in this clip are probably from a Raven, not the woodpecker.
Download Hairy Woodpecker

Dark-eyed Juncos: These juncos were getting after each other a bit. In recent days I have been realizing that I have not seen many Dark-eyed Juncos around lately. I’m not sure why that is, but apparently they’ve returned to the neighborhood for at least one morning.
Download Dark-eyed Juncos

The pale feathering on this Dark-eyed Junco is unusual. Observed 24 November 2007.

A few days after Connor started spreading some bird food around the yard a couple of weeks ago, the Dark-eyed Juncos discovered it and have since been frequent visitors. Among them is an individual (shown above) with unusual pale feather coloring on its wings and tail. The pattern of coloring is quite similar to a bird that visited our yard frequently three years ago, the last time we had feeders out (shown below). So much so, that I’m pretty sure it must be the same bird.

It’s unusual for me to be able to keep track of an individual bird for a few minutes while watching even a small group of birds. It’s pretty much unprecendented that I recognize an individual I have not seen for three years. In some way it’s like the return of an old friend. I’m happy about the return of this bird, and find that I wonder what it’s been up to over the last couple of years. Where does it go for the summer breeding season? Has it been in the neighborhood the last two winters? It seems likely, but I don’t remember ever seeing it.

The return of this individual also makes me wonder how many of the juncos that I see each winter around the neighborhood are here every winter. I’m sure mortality is pretty high from year to year. In some respects it’s pretty amazing that this bird with plumage that is not necessarily optimal for hiding, has managed to survive when I’m sure many of his peers didn’t. According to the Birds of North America on-line, Dark-eyed Juncos have been observed to live at least 11 years in the wild (found via bird banding work). Although it seems unlikely that we will live in this neighborhood for more than a year or two into the future, I think it would be neat to see this bird again each winter.

This Dark-eyed Junco visited our feeders through the winter of 2004. Its unusually pale feathers were quite distinctive.

This Orange-crowned Warbler was observed 24 November 2007, a new late date for the species.

Spent the day at home, though I did go outside a few times to look at birds.

Weather: The forecast was for mostly cloudy skies, and it was accurate. In this case, mostly cloudy meant brief breaks of blue sky (and sun, if you were in the right place at the right time) between little rain showers that were moving through.

Birds: Connor has been scattering some bird food for the neighborhood birds. I do not think it has attracted any birds that were not around the neighborhood anyway, but it has made the Dark-eyed Juncos more inclined to spend time around our house. I think his (not so secret) hope is that the small song birds attract a raptor of some sort so he can see it.

I’m not sure how many juncos there are around, but it seems like there must be at least 20-30. They do not bunch up too tightly, so it’s difficult to say. One of them has unusual pale coloring. I think it’s one I saw three years ago, the last time we regularly fed the birds. Presumably it has returned in the intervening years, but without feeders, I did not see the juncos so much.

There were two warblers hanging around today. I’m now reasonably convinced that they are both Orange-crowned Warblers, though one of them was much more gray than I have ever seen before and has a yellow rump. They both spent most of the time (that I saw them, at least) foraging in the grass. Occasionally I saw one pull up what I presumed to be a caterpillar. As far as I now, this is the latest record of an Orange-crowned Warbler in Sitka.

Other birds I saw while outside today included a small flock of Pine Siskins, a Winter Wren or two, and two or three Song Sparrows.

This morning I took Rowan to Swan Lake before dropping her off at preschool. It seemed like a nice day and it has been awhile since I was out kayaking, so I decided to go for a paddle. I ended up paddling over to the other side of Eastern Channel, over toward Cobb Island via the Twins. I did not get right up on the shore, but went a little bit towards Camp Coogan before paddling back past the green buoy to Totem Park, then along the shore to the hatchery.

It was probably the longest paddle I have done since I started kayaking a little more consistently last fall. Although on the way back it seemed like I was paddling through jello and making very little progress while I was out away from everything, my new skin on frame kayak must be at least a little faster than the other one I’ve paddled. Even though I stopped a few places to look at birds, I made it back from the other side of Eastern Channel to Sage Beach in under an hour. I did not have a GPS or anything, so I don’t know exactly how far it is, but I think it’s about three miles. I guess the feeling of making no progress happens when I’m far from everything and it’s more difficult to tell how far and/or fast I have actually gone.

Later this afternoon, Connor and I walked down to Totem Park.

Weather: It started out sunny, but high overcast moved in as the morning went on. I could still see a bright spot in the clouds for part of the time I was kayaking, but the skies became more uniform by the time I headed back. This afternoon when Connor and I were out, thicker, though less uniform, clouds had moved in. There was a little breeze blowing out of the Southeast when I was paddling out, but it had died down on my way back. It was interesting that there seemed to be little swell/surge when I left, but coming back three hours later, there was a much stronger wave action on the beach. The tide was coming in and was quite high when I returned, but I do not know if this had anything to do with the amount of wave action. It was actually fairly breezy when Connor and I were at the park early this evening. There was a little bit of rain this afternoon, then more consistent rain started falling later this evening.

Birds: At Swan Lake this morning there was an American Wigeon. I also saw a Hooded Merganser fly in and what I think was a Spotted Sandpiper (based on its size, color, and flight) trying to land on some of the remaining pond-lily leaves.

There were a few robins around the house this morning, but they did not seem to stick around long. I happened to catch the Steller’s Jay outside, and enticed it with some peanuts. It hopped within a couple of feet to grab peanuts that I had tossed down, but would not get any closer. Much like the jays last year (I do not know if this is one of the birds we saw last year), it will take the peanuts and cache them. Later in the day, I saw it retrieve a peanut it had cached in a hemlock branch and fly off to eat it.

Dark-eyed Juncos have returned to the neighborhood. They’ve probably been here awhile, but I finally paid attention to that fact today.

While kayaking I did not see too many birds. There were a few Murres on the town side of Eastern Channel and a few scattered gulls. I think i saw a White-winged Scoter flying out Eastern Channel, and I observed several Harlequins in a few different small flocks flying from the direction of the park towards the south as I was on my way to the Twins. On the way back, I saw four Surf Scoters off Jamestown Bay. There were quite a few Black-legged Kittiwakes off of Totem Park, and I saw one Marbled Murrelet off the park. I also saw several Pelagic Cormorants in Crescent Bay going and returning.

At the park this evening there were several Black Turnstones that let us approach fairly close without concern. We heard a few Chickadees in the forest, and there were lots of gulls scattered along the beach, most of them by the river mouth and in the estuary (the tide was out, so flats in the estuary were exposed). We did see the Slaty-backed Gull. I also saw the Ruddy Turnstone and 4 American Wigeons.

Mammals: There were several whales in two groups in Eastern Channel. The larger group was in toward the mouth of Silver Bay. The other group, which seemed to consist of two whales, was more out in the middle. I got much closer (though not too close for comfort, fortunately) to this smaller group. Either the group at the mouth of Silver Bay was not staying down nearly as long, or there were multiple whales staggering their breathing more, as I saw breath spouts far more often from that group. The two I was closest to would stay down for several minutes before coming up to breathe. They actually appeared to be heading out about the same time I started back to town. One of them went out Eastern Channel toward the sound, then a few minutes later the other one did also.

I saw a couple of Steller’s Sea Lions off the park when paddling back to town. There was a gray headed Harbor Seal not too far off the beach when Connor and I were there. (Which reminds me, I have been seeing seals from the park fairly often the last few weeks, but seem to forget to mention them in these entries.)

Other Notes: The tomato plant has been overtaken by the tides. I couldn’t find evidence of it when Connor and I were at the beach today.

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