A Wild Life

Last Saturday while I was driving back towards town from Starrigavan we saw several cars pulled off to the side of the road a little ways past the Channel club. It was like we were in Yellowstone so I slowed down a bit, but dad could not see what everyone was looking at, so we went down and turn around at Sandy beach then went back by. On the way back by dad saw that there were Orcas heading West, so we went up by the Chanel club saw them briefly there then we out by Halibut Point Rec and got photos of them out there. Then we went out a bit further then turned around. There was a group of about 7.

This morning I went down to the beach to get seaweed. On my way back I stopped by a place where I had been told I could get some scrap wood (if there was any). There was a big pile of scrap wood there, but I could not get it back in the trailer with the seaweed in it, so, I went home, dropped off the seaweed and went back to get the wood. After I dropped off the seaweed I took the trailer (with some rope in it) back down to get the wood. I got some of the wood in the trailer and decided that I would need to come back for the other wood. I was on my way back to my house when I encounter someone that work there. I took them back to show them where I had gotten the wood.  They were just going to burn the wood so they said I could take it. On my way back to my trailer with the wood I encountered a friend and they offered to put the wood in their truck and take back to my house for me, and since, in the couple hundred yards I had gotten the wood, I was really wondering if trying to move 11, 12′ planks in my bike trailer was such a good idea, I gratefully took him up on that offer. Since there was more wood I wanted, we went back and got that wood, then we went and got the wood in the trailer and put the trailer in the back then came back to my place. We unloaded the wood by the berm and then I thanked him and I started caring the wood into the yard. After I got the wood in the yard I started building a work table for me to use. It took me a few hours to build it.

At the beginning of this week, I decided to clean up my room a bit.
I moved two of my bookshelves away from my bed, the larger white one went all the way across the room, the smaller one was placed on the other side of the cabinet that’s right next to the top of my bed. I also moved the branching bookshelf to underneath the fancy light next to the white bookshelf and cleaned under the cabinet and organized the bookshelves. When moving the cabinet, we found that the mat I had been using had gotten a bit stuck to the bottom, so when I moved it back, I didn’t put the mat as far under.
I had help from Connor when it came to moving the things and he also helped with the organizing of the two bookshelves that are on the other end of my room from my bed.
Multiple spiders were found and tossed outside. (I also saw a large on on Connor’s door frame while I was in bed. I put it outside as well, because there was no way I was going to sleep with a large spider like that in the house)
The tops of my bookshelves were rather dusty, and the top of my cabinet was really dusty.
By moving the bookshelves, it seems like I have a lot more room in my room, but I’m not done cleaning quite yet. I’m hoping to be done sometime next week or early the week after that.

These are the highlights from the 2018 birding season in Sitka, Alaska. 2018 was my best year so far, because of the number of different birds species I saw that year. I saw 160 species, of which, 13 were new for my Alaska list. I had a total of 198 photographed bird species in Alaska by the end of the year. Only two shy of the 200 I was hoping for, I counted 3 birds though that I had seen/heard but had not gotten photos of. With that I was able submitted my Alaska bird list with a total of 201 species to the Alaska 200 Club, and was accepted! The Alaska 200 Club is a group of people who have observed 200 or more wild birds in the state of Alaska.

American Kestrel

On April 11, I was doing my paper route when I saw a small falcon perched on a power line. It then, flew down in front of my and I saw that it was brightly colored and knew that it was an American Kestrel, which are not very common here. 

Golden Eagle

On April 29, I was at the lake watching the swallows, there was both a Cliff swallow, and a Violet-green swallow down there with all of the Tree swallows. While I saw trying to keep an eye on the swallows I saw a raptor soaring over some houses to the East of me. Based on the size I figured it was a eagle but, I wasn’t sure if it was a Bald eagle (the normal one) or a Golden eagle (the one I was hoping it to be).  I looked through my binoculars and caught a flash of white “eyes” on the underside of the wings. I got my camera up as quickly as I could and took a lot of photos of it.

Later in the year, I was out of town and found out that there was a pair of Golden eagles nesting out at Blue lake. Seeing a Golden eagle in Sitka is rare enough, but to have a pair nesting here was even more rare. In fact this was the first report of Golden eagles nesting on the island. The pair successfully fledged one young one.This is a photo of the bird that flew over the lake.

Ring-billed Gull

On May 11, I was coming back from doing my paper route, and had just crossed the road when I looked down at the beach from the sidewalk. Down at the water edge, I saw a gull that looked kind of odd. I walked down a road that went right by the beach and took some photos of the bird. I then looked at my photos, and saw that it was an adult Ring-billed gull. I let a couple of people know about it and walked back up to the main road to so I could keep an eye on the bird and wait for them.

Later in the year I saw one adult at the park and several immature birds.

Lark Sparrow

On August 9, I was heading back from my paper route, when I got a text from dad saying that there was an unusual sparrow out by whale park and that someone could come by and get me if I wanted to go see it. The person called me and I meet them by the main road and we went out to see the sparrow. I learned on the way out there that the bird was a Lark sparrow. When we got there we walked up the road and found out that the bird was around behind the house. We walked around the house and saw it moving around in the grass. I got some photos of it. I watched it for a bit then headed home.

LeConte’s Sparrow

On October 13, I went down to the park in the evening. I got out to the end of the park and saw some movement in some short vegetation. The bird flew up the beach into some grass and disappeared. I pished a bit and then bird popped up. I looked through me binoculars and saw that it had a very orange face and throat. I got my camera out and took some photos it. I then let dad know about and waited for him out on the beach.

When I got home I looked in the bird book and decided that it looked the most like a LeConte’s sparrow. I found out later that it was the first record for Alaska. I did a write-up and sent it in. I was informed later that it was accepted to the Alaska bird list checklist!

Rustic Bunting

On November 7, I went out with dad to look for a Rustic bunting that had shown up while I was out of town. We waited for a few minutes then the bird appeared  I was able to get some photos of it. We watched it for a bit then, after it flew away we left.

Tennessee Warbler

On November 16, I went to Castle hill to look for a Tennessee warbler and a Nashville warbler that had shown up while I was out of town, but had been seen again on November 15. I went down to Castle hill in the morning and found them there. I was able to get some photos of them, then after a bit I headed home.

Nashville Warbler

On November 16, I went to Castle hill to look for a Tennessee warbler and a Nashville warbler that had shown up while I was out of town, but had been seen again on November 15. I went down to Castle hill in the morning and found them there. I was able to get some photos of them, then after a bit I headed home.

Swamp Sparrow

On November 18, I was down by Path Of Hope when I heard an interesting sounding bird. I walked around looking for it for a bit when I finally found the source, it was a Swamp sparrow. I got a few photos of it and then saw that there was a second one. I watched them for a bit then I headed home.

Later on CBC someone saw one up by where I lived so I walked up there the next day and got photos of it.This is a photo of the one by my place.

Last Saturday we went out on a Whalefest cruise. The weather wasn’t tear able but it wasn’t that great either.

We went over by Deep inlet then went went along the outside to over by the Chaichei’s, and on out to the Trench.

We saw a couple whales by Deep inlet, and saw some sealions on a buoy in eastern channel. We saw more whales over in the Trench. We watched to the whales in the Trench then we headed back to town. On the way back to town we saw a whale lung feed once.  We headed back through the channel, and on our way through I heard a dog barking then I saw a dog up on the edge of a boat barking at a sealion in the water by the boat.

This morning I went down to the Park. The tide was out and it was cloudy.

I walked around the beach, looking at the goldeneyes, the gulls and the other birds that were down there.

Earlier in the day, before I got to the park, I saw a Whale between Galankin island and the shore. It headed towards the bridge.

I saw a large group of cormorants and saw some of them catch some Herring. I walked up the beach and talked to Rowan since she was sitting on a bench at the top of the beach. While we were there I saw a Whale out by an island. I watched it for a bit as it moved towards the shore. One of the times it went down it looked like it was coming close to the shore. It was already quit close so I got up and ran across the beach to get to the edge of the water so that I could hopefully get some good photos of it. When I was almost to the waters edge I saw the birds that had been on the water take off, then moments later the head of the whale come lunging out of the water. The Whale was probably only about 100 yards off the shore. I got my camera out so that I was ready for the next time. The Whale came up a second time, this time about 100-200 yards off the shore. I was able to get a couple photos of it before it went back down. Rowan came down and we watched for a while. It swam to one end of the beach, then to the other then back again. On its way back it lunged again but this time it lunged more horizontally across the water surface of the water vs the more vertical lungs it had done the two times before. It swam towards Cannon island. Since it was getting late and the Whale did not seem to be lunging any more, we headed up the beach. As we were walking up the beach I looked back and saw the Whale lung out more in front of Cannon island, so when we got to the top of the beach we waited for a bit it came up one more time further away in front of Cannon island. I was only able to get a photo of it as it was sinking back into the water. We watched for a bit longer, but it was almost lunch time and we had not seen the Whale come up again and there was a saner heading that way so we headed home.              I believe that the white foam at the bottom of the photo is from the water hit the shore line. This is just a more cropped in version of the photo above.

Over the last several years we have had some rats in our yard, but I have not tried very hard to get rid of them. This last snow fall we had I noticed that there were a lot of rat tracks in the yard, so I went to the store and got some rat traps. I started with three but then decided that I wanted more so I went back the following day (after I had gotten one rat) and got three more. I then set them that evening and checked them every couple of hours when I was up. I caught two before I went to bad that evening, I had one when I got up the following morning  as well.

I get up at 7:15 am to check and unset the rat traps so that I don’t catch any birds in them. I will set them again just after dark.

I got one before I went to bed last night and when I got up this morning I had three more.

Today when I went down to the park in the morning, I saw a river otter swimming towards sage rock. It looked like it had something in it’s mouth, but I couldn’t see it all that well since it was mostly under the water.
As it got closer to Sage rock, it scared off the one duck that was sitting there and then disappeared behind the rock. At first I thought it was going to swim out on the other side, but when it didn’t appear, I moved back further and went off the boardwalk and into the trees to get a better angle. It was on the side of Sage rock, eating whatever it had caught, but what it had caught was behind a small ledge so I just continued assuming it was eating a fish.
I got a couple of pictures of it before my camera ran out of batteries and I continued onwards to the park.

On my way back, I saw something swimming just before where the fish get caught by the hatchery. It was another river otter, though it could’ve been the same one, there was no way for me to really tell.
It was pretty close, but it moved into the rocks at the beginning of the breakwater, and my camera was still out of batteries (they didn’t magically charge themselves, unfortunately), so I didn’t see any reason to see if it would come out again.

After lunch today, Connor showed me a picture he got of a shrike yesterday and I remembered that I had photos of a shrike…somewhere.
So Connor looked up when the year was that I got the photos, since he had pictures taken on that same trip posted on his inaturalist. I then looked to see if I posted posted my photos there, which I had not. I also looked at our weblogs to see if I posted it there, and found I had posted a blog, but no pictures! So we then looked through my unorganized photos on the computer, didn’t find them there, but we did find some around the same time. We then looked at Connor’s hard drive and had no luck, so he went downstairs to get mine.
While looking through mine, we found some really old photos and videos and were kinda amused at the various photos I had of dad that I most likely just took without him knowing (though he probably suspected I was, it’s hard to sneak photos)…I still do that every now and then, I like to know who was with me! We also found an old video of me, Connor and Grandpa racing at the sand dunes, with me being sandwiched in between. Obviously, I did not win, like I remembered.
Anyways! We eventually found the photos of the shrike and it was fun to look back on all those photos and videos!

Link to other blog- http://www.sitkanature.org/wildlife/?p=1823
Photo of shrike

This afternoon I went out birding. I walked down by the lake and saw that there were some Mallards and three American coots there. I then walked up to the Kimsham ball fields, by KGH school, to look and see if the Northern shrike that had been seen up there was still there. I had seen a Northern shrike about a week or so ago, but I wanted to try to get better photos of one. I walked around the perimeter of the ball fields looking for the bird. When I got to the parking lot for the cross trail connection, that came out there, I looked around because that had been where it had been being seen. I did not see it there so I started down the road. Just a short distance down the road I saw that shrike fly up from the edge in the short bushes. It landed on a branch and sat there for a while then flew to a different perch. I watched the bird for some time and it was quite cooperative. As it was getting darker I decided to head home. On my way down the road though I heard and odd chirping that I recognized as a Palm warbler, so I walked over and saw that there were two birds there. There has been a couple of Palm warblers hanging around town for the past several weeks so I figured that these were the same two.Immature Northern shrike