As I write this (December 2011) I don’t remember where these photos were taken. I think they were probably at Halibut Point Rec, though I have no other record from that visit.

As best I can tell, these tracks are from a squirrel bounding across the sand.

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I'm pretty sure these are tracks of a Red Squirrel bounding across the sand.

I'm pretty sure these are tracks of a Red Squirrel bounding across the sand.

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.

As we head toward solstice and the sun sets ever further to the south, it becomes much easier to observe the last moments that the sun is peaking above the horizon – at least on those days with clear skies. I would like to capture a nice image of the green flash that can occur at sunset when atmospheric conditions are right, so yesterday afternoon I went out to observe the setting sun.

While waiting for the sun to start moving below the horizon, I noticed at least three different birds sounding like they were alarming below me (I was at the top of a small hill). I could not tell what was causing the issue for them, but shortly thereafter, a Red Squirrel noticed me and gave a bit of a scolding before settling down to make a snack of the Sitka Spruce seeds it found in a cone.

Unfortunately for my attempts to capture a green flash event, there was a layer of mid or upper-level stratus clouds out over Sitka Sound. The last direct rays of the sun faded slightly to a still-very-bright, but more diffused light from the clouds reflecting and/or obscuring the sun. What the clouds took away in terms of a chance to see the green flash, they more than made up for in their vivid yellows, oranges, pinks, and purples as the sun continued to drop further below the horizon.

More pictures from this Sunset

A neighborhood Red Squirrel has been clipping hemlock branches with cones.

On a small island of trees at the bottom of the street we live on, there’s been a squirrel that Connor and Rowan have been paying some attention to. Though I am unsure of their reasoning, they have taken to calling it Hola, and most times we walk by, one of them will point him out. (I am not convinced it’s a male squirrel, but I’ll go with their thinking regarding its gender until there’s evidence otherwise.)

A neighborhood Red Squirrel has been clipping hemlock branches with cones.

The other day we were walking past the island and I noticed a lot of little hemlock branches on the ground. Upon pausing to consider how they came to be there, another one dropped a short distance from me. I looked up and saw Hola working at trimming the ends of branches. All the trimmed branches had cones on them, a fact which I hadn’t really noticed before.

Connor and Rowan seemed to be unsurprised by this behavior, and proceeded to show me a hole where Hola would go at times. Connor believed this hole to be Hola’s home, and he showed me where he had made an effort to help Hola with his work by putting branches at the entrance.

A neighborhood Red Squirrel has been clipping hemlock branches with cones and piling them at the base of trees.

The next day Connor and Rowan were playing down on the island and I asked them about Hola’s activities while I waited for someone to stop by with a delivery. They told me that Hola had been gathering the trimmed branches and piling them at the bases of several trees. I guess that would make them more convenient for grabbing and eating from a favored branch, but the issue of convenience brings up the question of why he’s trimming the branches in the first place. He could just grab the cones from the branches as he wants.

I can think of a couple of reasons Hola harvests the cones in the way he does. The branches ends where the cones are located are quite flexible, and it seems unlikely that he would be able to hold on and eat while out there. That would require a trip to the end to grab a cone, followed by a retreat back to a steady location for eating. This seems like an inefficient process for getting food. Another reason might be that the cones will continue to mature if they remain on the tree. Sometime this winter when conditions are right, they will open up and release their seeds to the wind. Once trimmed, it seems the cones are much more likely to remain closed, leaving the seeds available for Hola to eat. One thing I wonder about though is the quantity of cones harvested. So far it does not look like very many cones have been collected. I would think only enough to last a few weeks, but not the whole winter. Perhaps some are being moved to locations where they are not so visible. I will try to pay attention over the coming weeks and months to see whether Hola continues to harvest and use cones in this way.

A neighborhood Red Squirrel has been clipping hemlock branches with cones and piling them at the base of trees.

River Otter and Mystery Calls: More of the River Otter and Mystery Calls. In this clip, there is an otter chirping, then the mystery (possibly gull?) call comes in with the otter. It sounds to me like the second type of call is from an animal that’s moving around faster than I would expect an otter to (which would incline me to think it’s a bird), but I am uncertain how well I can actually interpret the spatial cues in these recordings.
Download River Otter and Mystery Calls

Red Squirrel: The rapid call at the beginning of this clip was something I don’t remember hearing before.
Download Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel: Recorded at 07:41. Download Red Squirrel

Varied Thrush: Both ‘songs’ and their contact calls (sound like ‘chup’) can be here. I think the singing birds might be hatch year individuals, as they sound somewhat tentative. Recorded at 07:42. Download Varied Thrush

Varied Thrush: What I take to be a single bird practicing his(?) singing. Recorded at 07:46. Download Varied Thrush

Red Squirrel: I am not sure what, if anything, this type of vocalization means coming from a Red Squirrel. They can (and this one did, though I cut the clip short) go on for several minutes chattering away like this. Download Red Squirrel

Pine Siskins: One of the fairly distinctive elements to Pine Siskin vocalization is the zipper call. That call can be heard a couple of times in this clip. Download Pine Siskins

Mystery Calls: I am pretty sure these are from a Varied Thrush, but it’s not their typical sound.Download Mystery Calls

Winter Wren Singing: Although they are not singing as frequently or powerfully, the Winter Wrens are still occasionally belting out a stanza or two of song. I am not sure when/if the Winter Wrens stop singing completely for the winter.Download Winter Wren Singing

Presusmed Western Screech Owl: These are not the typical ‘bouncing-ball’ calls of the Western Screech Owl, though at the very end of the clip one can be heard faintly. At about 1:30 into the recording, there is a loud, but brief, call from a Bald Eagle. It sounds almost as though the eagle was disturbed by the owl. The owl continued with similar calls for another couple of minutes. I clipped most of these for space considerations, though I did put in the last call with the faint bouncing-ball call. Download Presumed Western Screech Owl

Red Squirrel Chattering: Listening to this squirrel chattering made me wonder how they can put out so much sound for a sustained period from such a small set of lungs, apparently without breathing. Download Red Squirrel

Chickadees and Ravens: Chestnut-backed Chickadees and Ravens calling. A Steller’s Jay can also be heard in the background a couple of times. Chickadees and Ravens