A Wild Life

A week or so ago I was getting back from deer hunting with my grandpa when I felt an indication on my phone that I had gotten a text. I looked at it and saw that there had been a Nashville warbler seen with a Tennessee warbler on Castle hill earlier in the day. Since it was just about dark and we weren’t even home yet I decided to see if I could go look for them in the morning.

Those birds were two of three rare warblers remaining from a big flock of warblers  that had moved through when I was down south hunting. There were 9-10 different species of warblers (5 of which were rare for Sitka) that showed up in about a week and a half while I was out of town. They all seemed to have vanished though by the time I got back from my trip. The Tennessee warbler had been seen once or twice since I had gotten back, but I had been unable to find it.

The next morning I got up and headed down to Castle hill to see if I could find them. I got down there and walked up to the top of the hill and looked around in the maples that the bird hand been hanging out in. Almost right after I got there I heard some warblers. I saw a couple of Ruby-crowned kinglets, then I saw a couple of warblers flitting around in the lower branches of the trees. I walked down the side of the hill a short distance to get a better view of them. I was that they were the Nashville and Tennessee warblers, so I started taking photos of them. After a bit a couple of Yellow-rumped warblers joined the flock and started foraging around on the lower limbs and on the ground with the other birds.

After I had taken quit a few photos, since it was getting more mid morning and since my grandpa was going to be catching a plane back to Idaho in the late morning, I headed home. Nashville warbler Tennessee warbler

A couple of weeks ago, when I was down south hunting a Rustic Bunting showed up a local feeder. The day after I got back me and my dad went and watched the feeder to see if I could see the Rustic Bunting.

We had been there for about 10-15 minutes when I saw a bird in the bushes that had a couple of face stripes kind of like a Purple finch. It was about the size of a Junco. It hopped out of the bushes enough for me to get a good look at it and it was the Rustic Bunting. I got photos of it and we watched it for several minutes before it flew away. We wait a couple of minutes then headed home.

Monday, when I went down to the park for the first time, I got some photos and I’ve just left my memory card up by the computer until I got a blog done for them. So, that’s why I’m doing this blog really, I just liked a photo I got. (But there were some other interesting things that happened too)
When I was about to go out onto the breakwater, a lady that had stopped right near I would turn approached me.
I suppose she didn’t have far to approach…but ‘started talking to me’ doesn’t seem to work as well. Anyways, she’d apparently seen me walking around the area a lot and wondered if I had a job or something. Which I said no, my dad just wants me outside. Though I later said I had a paper route. Then she asked who my dad was, and she apparently knew him and said her daughter was in classes with him (something like that). She said her name was Elaine, and somewhere in the conversation she asked where I live. I vaguely waved in the general direction of my house saying, “Up there.”
After our brief conversation, she kept walking and I went out onto the breakwater, slightly surprised that I hadn’t felt all that panicked at being in a conversation with a stranger.

Later, but not that far away, still on the sea walk. Just as the walkway goes through it’s first patch of trees, I saw a guy dressed like a runner or jogger knelt down just a tad off the trail holding out his phone like he was taking pictures of something. I slowed down just a little and cast a few glances to see what he was doing. As I walked by, I saw a patch of red, so I assumed it was a mushroom.
Then after I got a little ways past (just past the trashcan and out where there’s a view), I stopped and looked at the view, occasionally glancing over at him, waiting until he got up and left. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait more than a minute- if that.
So then I walked over and looked into the small holeish thing that the mushroom was in. It was kind of a neat placement and the mushroom was bright red with white. So I took photos of it too, but stayed on the pathway.

Then later, I was near the trail by the river, just before it really, and I saw an eagle sitting on the roots of a stump. I decided to take pictures of it, and I’m glad that I did.
It was a windy and cloudy day, though I suppose that doesn’t have much to do with this… Anyway, it was preening itself, then it sort-of-flew up onto a higher root, then a little after, another eagle flew over and it took off as well and I got a photo as it launched itself off, which is the one I like!
So, here are some of the photos!

How many Wednesdays ago was it now? Lemme look… Three! Three Wednesdays! Better late then never I suppose…
Let’s see how much I can remember…
It was a little before eleven when we finally went outside, like dad had said we would, so we could go see how windy it was elsewhere.
First we went out to silver bay, which was surprisingly not all that windy-only a bit of a breeze- but the moon was out and dad and I took some photos.
Then we went back and stopped on the road near a place I deliver papers to, it was probably the most windy, but it also started raining.
Then I believe we went out to Japonski island in front of UAS, it wasn’t very windy out there either.
Then the last place we went to, was out to Starrigavan. It was dark from the lack of street lights, and also, was not very windy. But on the way back…
…We almost hit a deer.
Or really, the deer almost ran out in front of us.
Dad didn’t see it, but I did. It seemed to be moving up from my side of the road, but luckily it didn’t cross in front of us.
I told dad and we turned around and the deer had crossed the road. Then another, smaller deer went out in front of us. Then another crossed, I can’t remember if it was in front as well.
I think they were a Doe and two fawns, but they didn’t have their spots anymore. We watched them for a bit, then went back home. So it was a fun night! (We got back around midnight)
And, surprise! Photos! (Most of them were taken in black and white)

A week or so ago Grandpa and I went Grouse hunting.

When we got there we went up an old logging road. While we were hiking up the road we heard/saw a couple of deer in the bushes on the edge of the road. Just after we were done watching the deer a Ruffed grouse walked out onto the road and I shot it. We walked up the road further. After we had been walking for a bit I looked up and saw a grouse fly up into the tree further up the hill. I started up the hill to look for it then another one flew up into a different tree. I got up there, after several more flew up into different trees, I looked around in the tree that I had seen the second grouse fly into. I spent several minutes looking for it in the tree and was about to give up when I found and shot it. We walked down since the other birds had flown away when I shot. We walked further up the road then got off the road and started through the trees. After we had been walking through the woods for a bit I heard a grouse fly up and saw it land in a tree. I was going to go up and try to get it when I saw one fly into a tree right in front of me so I shot that one and went up and got and shot the other one. I then walked up and got the second one then walked down and got the first one. Since I now had my limit I walked back down by Grandpa and walked back to the truck.

On Monday when I was on my way back from the park, I heard something running around on the rocks out of sight on Sage beach. It was behind the trees so I couldn’t see it, but I thought it was probably was a dog. But moments later, a bunch of River Otters came charging out, heading towards the water.
By the time I had my camera out and got a photo, some of them were already in the water. There were at least six, probably more.
I speed walked over to the breakwater, hoping to see them closer in, but I didn’t. They were swimming alongside the rocks, headed towards the entrance of the harbor.
The most I got up at once in a picture was four.
As I thought they might, once they got to the entrance of the harbor, they went into the harbor and that’s when I left to go back home.
(Also, I learned that a group of Otters is called a romp, or in water, a raft. They had other names too, but I liked romp)

…And didn’t have my camera for.
I believe it was this Tuesday, when I saw them.
It was raining pretty hard, so that’s why I didn’t bring my camera when I went down for my second outside time at the park.
On the way there, I saw a Sea Otter in the harbor, fairly close in as well. I didn’t regret bringing my camera too much then, but later I saw a Mink on the rocks by the river, on my side. I don’t know if I would’ve been able to get a photo, considering the fact that it was moving, but I still kinda wished I had brought my camera.
And then, I saw an odd looking bird in with the mallards.
It looked about their size, but it was whiter, sort of cream colored with a caramel-ish colored head. It was across the river from me, and it was raining and late, so the lighting wasn’t all that great. Either way, I could tell that it wasn’t normal, so I ran most of the way back, just in case it wasn’t a cross-bred mallard.
I took a different route than normal by going on the bike path on Sawmill Creek road, just in case Connor had left already. He hadn’t. But he did go to look for the bird and took my bike (I let him) so we were late to our paper route and mom’s. He didn’t find the bird then, though a few days later, Dad and I went past the lake and saw that it was just an odd mallard.

These are rocks that I have been polishing over the last few weeks.

Saturday evening I went down to the park, on my way to my mom’s place, to see what was down there. It was getting dark enough that I was thinking that it may be a waste of time, because it was dark enough that it would have been hard for me to get a very good photo of anything, but I went any way.

I was by the visitor center and saw a pale gull sitting on the beach. I looked at it through me binoculars and saw that it was a Glaucous gull. I decided to pull my camera out and see how well it worked in the low light. It worked alright, but it was kind of slow to focus compared to when the lighting is better.  I put my camera away and continued down the trail.

I got to the battle site bench and walked out off the trail. I walked over a bit before I started down onto the beach. As I walked over the peck of the beach I saw movement down below me in some short green vegetation. Just then a kind of small light colored flew up and down the beach a short distance then ducked down into some tall beach grass. I thought it looked kind of odd, so I pished a little bit and the bird hoped out and sat on top of the grass. I got my binoculars up and looked through them. I saw that it had a orange face and chest and knew that it did not belong here, so as quickly as I could I got the plastic bag off that I had keeping my camera bag dry, and got my camera out. I looked through my camera but there was to much grass between my and the bird, so hoping that it would stay put I slowly moved down so that I could get a better angle on the bird. The bird stayed put but when I looked through my camera I could not see the bird.  I did eventually find the bird in my camera and took a few photos of it with the camera partially zoomed in so that I had a couple of photos of it in case it moved before I got the camera zoomed all of the way in. I did get a couple photos with the camera at full zoom, then the bird flew a short distance up the beach and disappeared. I then took a photo of my photo with my phone and sent it to dad.

I stayed on the beach and waited for dad to get there after he had said he was on his, so that I did not spook the bird and make it fly further away. Once he got there I stayed on the beach where I could see more of the beach and he walked along the top of the beach. As he neared where I had seen it disappear a small light colored bird jumped up and flew down the beach a bit then disappeared back into the grass. It looked like the bird I had seen before. He walked around up there a bit more but did not get it to fly again. He came down and talked with me for a bit and I showed him one of my better photo of the bird. He took a picture of it with his phone and sent it to a couple of people, then he went back up and walked back across the top of the beach to see if we could see the bird, but it did not fly. By than the lighting was pretty bad he head home and I headed to my mom’s place.

When I got there I looked in the bird book and saw that the best match was a LeConte’s sparrow. I texted dad and let him know what I though it was and he said that another person had also thought it was a LeConte’s sparrow. It sounds like this is the first record of a LeConte’s sparrow in Alaska!

My Papa was in town this last week. While he was here we went out SMC road and parked in a parking area that over looked Silver bay.

While we were there I watched for birds, and while I was watching for birds a bird alarmed to a raptor flying over. I got a couple photos of the raptor. It was a Peregrine falcon. A bit later I saw a couple of eagles flying over. I looked at one of them and saw that it looked to have a couple of white patches on the under wings like a young Golden eagle has. I got some photos of it and the other three eagles that flew over with it. That one was a Golden eagle but the others were the normal Bald eagles. 

Peregrine falcon

Golden eagle