From looking at the surface, it’s hard to know how far you might sink down into the slurry of decaying organic matter that makes up the bottom of muskeg puddles if you had the adventure of falling in. Though I am sure it varies from puddle to puddle, earlier this year Connor took advantage of a long piece of wood to test out how deep one particular puddle was. It turned out that he could have hopped in without going over his head, though he didn’t opt to try it out.

Questions:

• Have you ever waded (or fallen) in a muskeg puddle? How deep was it?
• What consistency (of mud) is required for suction to make it difficult to get out?
• What makes up the solid floor below the mud? (volcanic ash? bedrock?)
• What causes a muskeg puddle to form?
• How stable are puddles, that is over what time period do they fill in and/or form?

On more than one occasion this year, I’ve noticed much greater levels of vole activity than I have seen in previous years. I’ve hiked up Bear Mountain the last 4 years, and this year the vole runs extended much higher, with much more wear than I have noticed in any of the past hikes. I even an saw one scurrying up past along a rivulet up in the rocky alpine where vegetation (including the ground covering heathers) was very sparse. On the bowl at Harbor Mountain (right up from the end of the road), there were many runs criss-crossing the slope as well as many other runs in the mixed meadow and mountain hemlock subalpine areas. Finally, there were several long runs in just the small section of Indian River Valley muskeg I visited a couple of weeks ago (the pictures included with this post are from that trip). I’ve been visiting this muskeg at least once most years for over a decade, and I do not ever recall seeing such runs in the past. There is of course the possibility that I just overlooked them, however I remember noticing vole runs in the alpine on some of my earliest hikes up there as a teenager, and the muskeg runs are quiet similar, so I suspect I they were not there in such abundance.

Small rodent populations are known to go through boom and bust cycles in some locations, though I don’t know if population dynamics of voles in Southeast Alaska have been studied. I have some suspicion that the recent winters with persistent winter snow have contributed to increased populations, especially at lower elevations where they may face increased predation pressure without the snow to protect them. I do not know what tends to control the population generally, predation or competition/food supply. As the only vole species, I do not imagine they have much competition from other species for resources (there are also Deer Mice, but I don’t know how much their resource usage overlaps). For that matter, it seems like there are not that many predators, either. Marten and Ermine, Western Screech-Owls as well as other less common owls, and other raptors seem like the most likely candidates. In particular, Marten studies on Chichagof Island showed that voles were a primary food source for them, so it seems likely the same would hold true for Baranof Island.

It will be interesting to see what impact the high population of voles will have overall. Presumably it’s good for the predators, and could lead to increased populations of resident marten, ermine and Western Screech-Owls. It will also be interesting to see if we have more reports of raptors that are not normally found very often here in winter, including Northern Saw-whet Owls, Snowy Owls, and Red-tailed Hawks (or other hawks).

Hairy Butterwort (Pinguicula villosa) observed blooming in Sitka area muskeg 22 May 2010.

Hairy Butterwort (Pinguicula villosa) is a small plant found on relatively dry hummocks in muskegs. Easy to overlook because of its size, this plant, with its delicate purple flower, is worth the effort to find and take a closer look at. Like its larger and more common relative Common Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris), this species is carnivorous. Its leaves are sticky and secrete enzymes which allow it to digest and the nutrients from any insects or pollen that become trapped on the surface. (As a carnivorous plant, it has attracted the attention of people who enjoy growing carnivorous plants, and any seaches for this species on-line will turn up pages about this species and how to grow it.) In order to survive the winter, it forms a hibernaculum (a type of bud) that offers greater protection from the cold.

Despite the fact that this species grows in an easily accessible location close to home, last weekend was the first time I had ever observed it, and I almost missed it this time as well. When my brother spent a year here in the 2003-2004, he mentioned finding what he said was a flower that looked like Common Butterwort, but was much smaller. At the time I figured it was probably P. villosa, but I did not get over to the muskeg to see it. In the following year or so I visited the muskeg where he had seen it, but never noticed it myself. Eventually it slipped off my radar, and I didn’t think about it anymore. Last weekend I got a call about a Sandhill Crane that showed up near that muskeg, and since Rowan had not seen one before, she, Connor and I walked over. The crane was gone by the time we got there, but we walked around the muskeg for a little while. On the way home, Connor wast telling me about the flowers he saw (we recently started playing a game where we try to see how many different kinds of wildflowers we can find on a walk), and mentioned seeing a small purple flower. After questioning him about its details, I thought it was likely P. villosa, so when I had time the next day, I walked back over and took the pictures seen with this post.

Even after I found the first one and knew what to look for, it was surprisingly easy to overlook additional plants. I took several photos of the second one I found, but only realized after I was done that 3 or 4 more were blooming within a foot of the one I photographed.

Some of the information I learned about this species came from the following sites:
Profile of P. villosa at pinguicula.org.
Article on the genus Pinguicula at Wikipedia.

Hairy Butterwort (Pinguicula villosa) observed blooming in Sitka area muskeg 22 May 2010.

Hairy Butterwort (Pinguicula villosa) observed blooming in Sitka area muskeg 22 May 2010.

Hairy Butterwort (Pinguicula villosa) observed blooming in Sitka area muskeg 22 May 2010.

Hairy Butterwort (Pinguicula villosa) observed blooming in Sitka area muskeg 22 May 2010.

Hairy Butterwort (Pinguicula villosa) observed blooming in Sitka area muskeg 22 May 2010.

About a foot of snow covers the long muskeg below the Middle Sister.

I had heard this year was going to be an El Nino year, which seems to correspond to relatively mild winters in Sitka, so it was interesting to see winter season getting started relatively early this year, with snow beginning to fall last week. In fact, there is an El Nino developing in equatorial Pacific Ocean, but apparently in the Pacific Northwest, at least, El Nino impacts tend to be strongest later in winter.

I had ibuttons I wanted to place for a project on temperature variation I’m working on, so I took a couple of hours to hike up Indian River. There was not too much snow in the woods, but in the openings it was at least a foot deep. Temperatures are supposed to rise into the 40s this week, so the snow may not last long, however.

It was pretty quiet overall, but I did hear some Ravens and Golden-crowned Kinglets. I also saw a couple of Brown Creepers and a Varied Thrush. Lots of deer tracks, but I did not see any deer.

Peak 2890 is barely visible through the low clouds above the West Fork of Indian River Valley.