These bright red salmonberry leaves caught my eye when I was walking home recently. Salmonberries don’t usually show much color, and to the extent they do, it seems like it is usually just a muted yellow as the leaves transition from green to brown. There were also just a couple of branches with bright red leaves.

Generally speaking, Sitka is not a place you would visit in search of fall colors. The vast majority of vegetated land is covered in evergreen forests. The most abundant deciduous trees (alders) have leaves that fall while still green or they just turn brown with little or no reds and yellows in transition. In some the introduced European Mt. Ash (Sorbus aucuparia) will show a fair amount of yellow and orange, and there are some other introduced trees that will show color as well.

The native plants that I’ve noticed most consistently showing reasonably bright fall colors are smaller plants. These include the dwarf blueberry (Vaccinium caespitosum), Tufted Bulrush (Trichophorum cespitosum), and Deer Cabbage (Nephrophilidium crista-galli). These are not the only ones, but they are the ones that seem most obvious to me (or at least the ones I’m remembering as I write this).

Both the bulrush and blueberries can be found in low elevation muskegs, with the blueberries turn a pinkish color and the bulrush a rather striking yellow. Deer cabbage can also be found at low elevations, but I associate the bright yellow fall colors with plants just above the tree line. Sometimes it is possible to see the patches of bright yellow up on the mountain ridges from some distance away.

This Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) appeared to eat from the salmonberry buds.

While walking along the sidewalk adjacent to Crescent Harbor last week, I happened to catch sight of something brown and not vegetation-like in the salmonberry bushes growing beside the path ahead of me. I managed to stop before I flushed the Song Sparrow perched on one of the branches. As I watched, the bird chewed on a swollen green bud that appeared close to opening.

Although I tend to think of Song Sparrows as ground-feeding seed eaters, I have on a previous occasion noted a Song Sparrow eating the still-green seeds of saltbrush (Atriplex gmelinii). Prior to this individual, I do not remember seeing a Song Sparrow eating greens, however.

I continued to watch, and the sparrow sang a little bit, but not its full song, as it kept its bill mostly closed, though I could see its throat moving in time with the soft chirps and trills. After a little bit of singing, it moved up the branch and really went after one of the buds. Shortly after this, I caught sight of a quickly moving bird down in the rocks. The Song Sparrow in the bushes noticed also, and directed his attention toward where the second bird had flown. Upon seeing the second bird appear again from the rocks, the first one flew down to the rocks as well.

I took a look at the branch where I had seen the Song Sparrow chewing at the buds. Despite the vigor with which it appeared the bird was chewing, the marks seemed subtle to my eyes. I took a photo of the bud that appeared to have the most obvious damage, but even that I suspect I would find difficult to notice unless I looked for it specifically.

This salmonberry bud (Rubus spectabilis) was one that had been chewed on by the Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia).

Curious about the eating habits of Song Sparrows, I looked up the food habits of Song Sparrows on the Birds of North America Online Song Sparrow account. From that I see they also frequently consume invertebrates and fruits (which does not surprise me, I probably should have realized that myself). However, it does not mention them eating greens.

Update: Someone pointed out to me that insect larvae could utilize the buds, and perhaps the Song Sparrow was going after them. I’ve not noticed such insect larvae (or evidence thereof), but that’s probably because I haven’t been looking.