A Wild Life

European dragons are legendary creatures in mythology in the overlapping cultures of Europe.
The European dragon is normally described as a large, lizard like, firebreathing creature, that has horns, scales, bat like wings, four legs, and a long muscular tail.
In some descriptions they have feathered wings, crests, spikes running down their spine, and other things. Some have multiple heads or no legs.
Even though it’s a winged creature, the dragon is normally found in an underground lair.
A typical dragon guards a cavern or castle filled with treasure.
Dragon’s blood often has magical properties keeping them alive for longer or giving them magical powers.
The dragons of European and Mideastern mythology may stem from the cult of snakes found in religions throughout the world.
For a long time dragons have been described as greedy treasure hoarders, wanting gold and precious gems. But in the fantasy genre a lot of dragons have been described in a positive light, as allies instead of enemies, like the Chinese dragons.
More dragons are viewed as friends of humans, and as intelligent and noble creatures, while still remaining the fierce beasts in legend.
I used the Wikipeadia.

Today when I went down to the park, it was sunny and there was also some wind.
Before I went down to the park, Dad, Connor and I went down to sage beach to collect some seaweed and after that I just walked down to the park.
When I was nearing the park, I saw a red breasted sapsucker on a small tree across the road.
When I was in the park, I heard some ravens or crows.
When I was at the battle site bench, it was low tide and I saw some sea gulls and ravens out on the beach.
When I was on the side trail near the trail by the river, I saw some more sea gulls and ravens out on the beach.
When I was on the trail by the river, I saw some mergansers on the shore on the other side of the river.
When I was nearing the foot bridge, I saw that the trail camera was still up in the tree.
When I was on my way back home by the harbor, I saw two eagles flying around over the harbor.
I also saw a raven fly by with something in it’s beak.
What did the raven have in it’s beak?
Why was the red breasted sapsucker on a small tree?
Why was the trail camera still there?

This morning I got up and went down to the park.

I was a little sunny out and a little windy out but it was not bad. The tide was up when I got to the park. I walked into the park and walked down the trail. I looked out a viewing point and saw a few whimbrels took some photos of them then went on down the trail. I got to the end of the park. I walked out into the viewing area and looked down the beach. I saw some one that I knew and they said that there were some american golden plovers out there. I walked and caught up with a birding group and saw the golden plovers (which turned out to be pacific golden plovers which was fine because I wanted to see them as well) and a red knot along with a few black belled plovers, dunlins, dowitchers and western sandpipers. I took photos of the red knot and the pacific golden plovers. I walked around the rest of the park saw a savannah sparrow with a little bit of a white head. I left the park and walked over to the airport and looked but I did not see anything unusual so I headed for the lake. Once I got to the lake I saw a green winged teal, some tree swallows, a wood duck, a few mallards, and a northern pintail. After I was there I went home.

1. Question why was part of the savannah sparrows head white?
2. Question where did the pacific golden plovers come from?
3. Question where are the pacific golden plovers going?                                           Savannah sparrow                                                  Pacific golden plover                                                  Green winged teal                                                                Red knot

A Cliff Swallow is an aerial predator, eating flying insects. They nest on cliffs and and man made structures in colonies, building their nests out of mud and lining the in side of it with feathers, grass and hair. They go as far south as northern Alaska and the winter in south Africa. They are more prevalent in the western united states then in the east.

They fly over water and open country hunting for flying insects.

I got my in formation from wikipedia, Washington department of fish and wildlife living with wild life swallows, Cliff swallows – all about birds, and Birds of north America by Kenn Kaufman.

Today Dad, Connor, Paul and I, went out to a beach that I don’t know that name of. Paul took us there on his boat.
Not too long before we landed on the beach, we saw a Gray whale out in the water.
When we got to the beach, Connor started walking along it and I started walking along it too, but I walked by the water.
There were a lot of shells on one part of the beach. Later I said that it was like a shell graveyard.
One time when I looked up, I saw the Gray whale’s tail.
A little while later, Dad and Paul caught up to Connor and me, though I was still down by the water.
When I was down by the water, I saw some Marbled godwits, a bunch of Brants, some sea gulls and cormorants. All of those were in different areas of the beach. All of them were on the rocky area of the beach though.
There were a lot of sparrows in a drier area of the beach.
Eventually Dad called me and had me come up to where they were but pretty soon after we went down by the water.
When we were down by the water, I looked around in some of the tide pools, and once I caught a green sculpin, which dad took some photo of.
Around that time, Paul and Connor were out on some rocks by were the Gray whale was, and it came up pretty close to them. By the time I got over to were they were it had moved a bit farther away.
Later we saw that there were three Gray whales out in the water sort of in the same area and they showed their fins sometimes.
Not too long before we got back on the boat, I had to help Connor put some sand into some buckets.
But before that, I had found a gray pipe that was mostly buried under the sand so I couldn’t move it. I had also found a crab that Connor took some photos of. I also found some shells that I took back with me.
When we got back on the boat, I at my sandwich.
Why was they gray pipe there?
What was the pipe for?
Why were there so many shells there?

Today when I went down to the park for the second time, it was mostly cloudy with some patches of sun.
When I was out on the breakwater, I saw some sea gulls and ducks.
When I was in the park, I heard a crow or raven in the trees somewhere above the trail.
When I was at the battle site bench, it was low tide and I saw some ravens and sea gulls out on the beach. The ravens were closer than the sea gulls were to me and the sea gulls were basically in one small group.
When I was on the side trail near the trail by the river, I saw two male Northern shovelers and some ducks, wigeons, and sea gulls out on the water.
I also saw some crows and one raven on the beach and most of the crows flew off.
Near the beginning of the trail by the river, I saw that there were some bones on the trail, I guessed they were spine bones.
When I was on the trail by the river, I saw a thrush fly up and land on a low tree branch on the river side of the trail I was on.
When I was nearing the foot bridge, I saw that the trail camera was still in the tree.
Why were the bones on the trail?
Why were there two shovelers out on the water?
How did the bones get there?

This morning after I ha gotten to dads and did my reading I went to the lake.

It was cloudy out but not bad other then that.

I first went to the peninsula looked at the swallows that were flying around and then decided I go down by the radio station because they were flying back and forth by it. So I walked up the road to the radio station walked down a little trail to the lake and walked out on to a mat of floating plants. I stood out there watching  the swallows fly back and forth up and down the lake I would look  through the swallows as they flew by and try to pick put the cliff swallow or the violet-green swallow. I would watch see one of the swallows try and get good photos of it before it would be gone. About half way through the time that I spent down there I saw an odd looking raptor soaring over the trees on the far side of the lake. I started taking photos of it the I sent dad a text as it went up the lake. After the raptor had gone from site I went back to trying to get photos of the swallows. It started to rain and short time later and since it was almost time for me to go home any way I just left a little earlier then I had planed.

I got home got the photos onto the computer of the raptor looked at them a little bit more and decided that it was a hawk of some kind. I looked through the bird book and decided that it looked most like a swainson’s hawk to me, but since I did not have very good photos of it and that that would be the first report for Sitka that I knew of, I did not say that it was a swainson’s hawk because it could have also been a red tailed hawk and those would be more likely to be here then a swainson’s hawk would. So I took some of the best photos edited them a little and put them up on inaturalist (which is a wed site that you can put observations on that you have of different things that are a live or had been a live, and different people are on there and they help identify things if they can). Since I had very little experience with swainson’s hawks or the other varieties of red tailed hawks that there are I put it up there in hopes that some one could help identify for me. I looked back a bit later and every one who had responded to the post said that it was a swainson’s hawk.

We had a big wind and rain storm the day and the night before with an east wind in the beginning but then it switched to more of a south wind and I think that that is part of the  reason the swainson’s hawk showed up here. Because it had gotten blown of course by the storm and ended up out here.

1. Question where did the swainson’s hawk come from?
2. Question how long had the swainson’s hawk been on baranof island before I saw it?
3. Question where did it go after it flew away up towards the end of the lake?

                                                Swainson’s hawk

Today when I went down to the park, for the second time, it was cloudy, windy and a little bit rainy.
When I was out on the breakwater, I saw a few sea gulls and a crow.
When I was in the park, I saw a few varied thrushes in the trees and on the ground.
When I was at the battle site bench, it was low tide and I saw a few sea gulls and ravens out on the beach, there were more ravens than sea gulls.
When I was on the side trail near the trail by the river, I saw some ravens and two ducks.
When I was on the trail by the river, I saw two geese on the other side of the river.
I also saw what I’m guessing was a sparrow in the bushes on the the side of the river I was on, but it moved around too much for me to tell was it was.
When I was on my way back home, I saw a bunch of ducks by the park and an eagle fly over the harbor.
Was what I saw a sparrow?
Why were the two geese there?
Why were there more ravens than sea gulls?

This morning after I had gotten to dad’s I went down to the park.

It was very windy down there, I had to walk into it. I walked along the beach with the wind in my face. I looked in the forest where Rowan had said that she had seen a bird nest. While I was looking at the nest a feather floated down from a tree behind me I turned around and looked up into the trees to see if I could see where it came from. I looked around up at the trees for a while but I was unable to find where it came from so I walked down to the end of the park. I walked back out on the beach at the end of the park. I walked along the shore line and saw the brants were still around, along with a few sandpipers. I looked through the gulls that were there then I walked back to the trail back along the top of the beach. I saw a friend and we talked for a bit then I went home.

After I had been home for a while dad sent me text saying that there was a cliff swallow down at the lake, so I got ready and left for the lake.

The traffic was pretty bad so I had to wait a few minutes before I could cross the road.

Once I got to the lake I walked up along the lake to by where I saw dad standing. I got my camera and looked through my binoculars to see where the cliff swallow was. I would find the cliff swallow then I would loss it. While I was trying to get photos of the cliff swallow I saw another swallow that did not look right. I was able to get some photos of it and saw that it was a violet-green swallow. I went over and told dad that there was a violet-green swallow, I continued to try and get photos of both. It was quite tricky though because it was quite windy out there and they were flying around a lot and were flying quite fast. I did manage to get some photos of both the violet-green swallow and the cliff swallow though. I tried for quite a while but eventually I decided to go back home when dad did. I’m glad that I was able to go and see the cliff and violet-green swallows down at the lake.

1. Question will they be here very long?
2. Question how long will they be here for?
3. Question when did they get here?                                                        Violet-green swallow                                                        Cliff swallow

Today when I went down to the park for the second time, it was cloudy and raining a little bit.
When I was out on the breakwater, I saw a few people with a kayak on the beach.
When I was nearing the entrance to the park trail, there were some people putting on the new gravel for the trail by the visitor center.
When I saw in the park, I saw a bird nest in a tree near the trail.
When I was nearing the battle site bench, I saw a robin in the bushes.
When I was at the battle site bench, I saw some ravens and Savannah sparrows out on the beach. The ravens flew away when they saw me.
When I was on the side trail near the trail by the river, I saw some ravens out on the beach and in a tree.
I also saw some ducks out in the water.
When I was on the trail by the river, I saw one merganser and two Yellowlegs on the other side of the river.
Why was the bird nest near the trail?
Why was there only one merganser?
Why are they putting new gravel on the trail?